The wonders of the molecular world, animated | Janet Iwasa

Translator: Emma Toft Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

I live in Utah,

Jeg bor i Utah,

a place known for having some of the most awe-inspiring

Et sted som er kendt for nogle af de mest inspirerende

natural landscapes on this planet.

naturlandskaber på denne jord.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by these amazing views,

Det er nemt at blive overvældet af disse fantastiske udsigter,

and to be really fascinated by these sometimes alien-looking formations.

og at blive virkelig fascineret af disse nogle gange alien-lignende formationer.

As a scientist, I love observing the natural world.

Som en forsker, elsker jeg at observere den naturlige verden.

But as a cell biologist,

Men som en cellebiolog,

I'm much more interested in understanding the natural world

Er jeg mere interesseret i at forstå den naturlige verden

at a much, much smaller scale.

på en meget, meget mindre skala.

I'm a molecular animator, and I work with other researchers

Jeg er en molekyleanimator, og jeg arbejder med forskere

to create visualizations of molecules that are so small,

for at skabe visualiseringer af molekyler, som er så små

they're essentially invisible.

at de praktisk talt er usynlige.

These molecules are smaller than the wavelength of light,

Disse molekyler er mindre, end bølgelængden af lys,

which means that we can never see them directly,

hvilket betyder at vi kan aldrig se dem direkte,

even with the best light microscopes.

selv med de bedste lys mikroskoper.

So how do I create visualizations of things

Så hvordan skaber jeg visualiseringer af ting

that are so small we can't see them?

som er så små at vi ikke kan se dem?

Scientists, like my collaborators,

Forskere, ligesom mine kollegaer,

can spend their entire professional careers

kan bruge hele deres professionelle karriere

working to understand one molecular process.

på at lære at forstå en molekylær process.

To do this, they carry out a series of experiments

For at gøre dette, udfører de en række eksperimenter

that each can tell us a small piece of the puzzle.

som hver især kan give os et lille stykke af puslespillet.

One kind of experiment can tell us about the protein shape,

En slags eksperiment kan fortælle os om proteinets form,

while another can tell us

mens en anden kan fortælle

about what other proteins it might interact with,

om hvilken andre proteiner den interagerer med,

and another can tell us about where it can be found in a cell.

og et andet kan fortælle os hvor det kan findes i en celle.

And all of these bits of information can be used to come up with a hypothesis,

Og alle disse bidder af information kan blive brugt til at forme en hypotese,

a story, essentially, of how a molecule might work.

i bund og grund en fortælling om hvordan en molekyle fungerer.

My job is to take these ideas and turn them into an animation.

Mit job er at tage disse idéer og forvandle dem til en animation.

This can be tricky,

Dette kan være besværligt,

because it turns out that molecules can do some pretty crazy things.

fordi det viser sig at molekyler kan gøre nogle ret vilde ting.

But these animations can be incredibly useful for researchers

Men disse animationer kan være utrolig nyttige for forskere

to communicate their ideas of how these molecules work.

til at kommunikere deres idéer om hvordan disse molekyler virker.

They can also allow us to see the molecular world

De kan også tillade os at se den molekylære verden

through their eyes.

gennem deres øjne.

I'd like to show you some animations,

Jeg vil gerne vise jer nogle animationer

a brief tour of what I consider to be some of the natural wonders

en hurtig tour af hvad jeg mener er nogle af de naturlige vidundere

of the molecular world.

af den molekylære verden.

First off, this is an immune cell.

Først, dette er en immuncelle.

These kinds of cells need to go crawling around in our bodies

Denne slags celler bevæger sig rundt i vores krop

in order to find invaders like pathogenic bacteria.

for at finde angribere ligesom patogene bakterier.

This movement is powered by one of my favorite proteins

Denne bevægelse er lavet af en af mine yndlings proteiner

called actin,

kaldet actin,

which is part of what's known as the cytoskeleton.

hvilket er en del af hvad er kendt som cytoskelettet.

Unlike our skeletons,

Imodsætning til vores skelet,

actin filaments are constantly being built and taken apart.

Actin filamenter bliver konstant bygget og nedbrudt.

The actin cytoskeleton plays incredibly important roles in our cells.

Actincytoskelettet spiller en enormt vigtig rolle i vores celler.

They allow them to change shape,

De tillader dem at ændre form,

to move around, to adhere to surfaces

at rykke sig, at stikke til overflader

and also to gobble up bacteria.

og også at sluge bakterier

Actin is also involved in a different kind of movement.

Actin er også involveret i en anden slags bevægelse.

In our muscle cells, actin structures form these regular filaments

I vores muskelceller, actin skaber disse almindelige filamenter

that look kind of like fabric.

some ligner en slags stof.

When our muscles contract, these filaments are pulled together

Når muskler sammentrækkes, bliver filamenterne trukket sammen

and they go back to their original position

og de går tilbage til deres første position

when our muscles relax.

når vores muskler afslappes.

Other parts of the cytoskeleton, in this case microtubules,

Andre dele af cytoskellettet, i dette tilfælde mikrotubuli,

are responsible for long-range transportation.

har ansvaret for langdistance transportering.

They can be thought of as basically cellular highways

De kan kort sagt anses for at være cellulære motorveje

that are used to move things from one side of the cell to the other.

som bruges til at flytte ting fra den ene side af cellen til den anden.

Unlike our roads, microtubules grow and shrink,

Ligesom vores veje, mikrotubuli vokser og krymper,

appearing when they're needed

fremgår når de er nødvendige

and disappearing when their job is done.

and forsvinder når deres job er gjort.

The molecular version of semitrucks

Den molekylære version af lastbiler

are proteins aptly named motor proteins,

er proteiner som er kaldt motor proteiner,

that can walk along microtubules,

som kan gå langs mikrotubuli,

dragging sometimes huge cargoes,

ind imellem trækkende stor fragt,

like organelles, behind them.

som organeller, bag dem.

This particular motor protein is known as dynein,

Denne specifikke motor protein er kendt som dynein,

and its known to be able to work together in groups

og den er kendt for at kunne samarbejde i grupper

that almost look, at least to me, like a chariot of horses.

som næsten ligner, synes jeg, en hestevogn.

As you see, the cell is this incredibly changing, dynamic place,

Som du kan se, cellen er et utroligt forandrende, dynamisk sted,

where things are constantly being built and disassembled.

hvor ting konstant bliver bygget og skilt ad.

But some of these structures

Men nogle af de strukturer

are harder to take apart than others, though.

er sværere at skille ad end andre.

And special forces need to be brought in

Og specialstyrker bliver bragt ind

in order to make sure that structures are taken apart in a timely manner.

for at sikre at de strukturer bliver skilt ad i rette tid.

That job is done in part by proteins like these.

Dette job bliver udført at proteiner som disse.

These donut-shaped proteins,

Disse donut-formede proteiner,

of which there are many types in the cell,

som der er mange slags af i cellen,

all seem to act to rip apart structures

alle virker til at ødelægge strukturer

by basically pulling individual proteins through a central hole.

kort sagt ved at trække individuelle proteiner gennem et centralt hul.

When these kinds of proteins don't work properly,

Når denne slags proteiner ikke virker ordentligt,

the types of proteins that are supposed to get taken apart

den type proteiner som er ment til at blive nedbrudt

can sometimes stick together and aggregate

kan ind imellem klæbe sammen og samles

and that can give rise to terrible diseases, such as Alzheimer's.

og det kan afføde forfærdelige sygdomme, som Alzheimer's.

And now let's take a look at the nucleus,

Og lad os nu tage et kig på kernen

which houses our genome in the form of DNA.

som huser vores genom i formen af DNA.

In all of our cells,

I alle vores celler,

our DNA is cared for and maintained by a diverse set of proteins.

vores DNA vedligeholdt af en alsidig gruppe af proteiner.

DNA is wound around proteins called histones,

DNA er viklet omrking proteiner kaldet histoner,

which enable cells to pack large amounts of DNA into our nucleus.

som tillader celler at pakker store mængder af DNA i vores kerne.

These machines are called chromatin remodelers,

Disse maskiner er kaldt kromatinombyggere,

and the way they work is that they basically scoot the DNA

og de fungerer sådan at de praktisk talt flytter DNA'et

around these histones

rundt om disse histoner

and they allow new pieces of DNA to become exposed.

og tillader nye stykker DNA at blive blottet.

This DNA can then be recognized by other machinery.

Dette DNA kan så blive genkendt af andet maskineri.

In this case, this large molecular machine

Her, denne store molekylære maskine

is looking for a segment of DNA

leder efter et udsnit af DNA

that tells it it's at the beginning of a gene.

der fortæller den at det er starten af et gen.

Once it finds a segment,

Når den finder et udsnit,

it basically undergoes a series of shape changes

undergår den et række af form ændringer

which enables it to bring in other machinery

hvilket lader den bringe ind andet maskineri

that in turn allows a gene to get turned on or transcribed.

som vil tillade genet at blive aktiveret eller kopieret.

This has to be a very tightly regulated process,

Dette bliver nødt til at være en meget tæt reguleret process,

because turning on the wrong gene at the wrong time

da aktivering af det forkerte gen på det forkerte tidspunkt

can have disastrous consequences.

kan have katastrofale konsekvenser.

Scientists are now able to use protein machines

Forskere kan nu bruge protein maskiner

to edit genomes.

til at redigere genomer.

I'm sure all of you have heard of CRISPR.

Jeg er sikker på at I har hørt om CRISPR.

CRISPR takes advantage of a protein known as Cas9,

CRISPR drager fordel af et protein kendt som Cas9,

which can be engineered to recognize and cut

som er designet til at genkende og klippe

a very specific sequence of DNA.

et meget specifikt udsnit af DNA.

In this example,

I dette eksempel,

two Cas9 proteins are being used to excise a problematic piece of DNA.

to Cas9 proteiner bliver brugt til at klippe et problematisk stykke DNA.

For example, a part of a gene that may give rise to a disease.

eksempelvis, en del af et gen som kan afføde en sygdom.

Cellular machinery is then used

Cellulær maskineri er så brugt

to basically glue two ends of the DNA back together.

praktisk talt til at lime to ender af DNA'et sammen igen.

As a molecular animator,

Som molekylær animator,

one of my biggest challenges is visualizing uncertainty.

en af mine største udfordringer er at visualisere usikkerhed.

All of the animations I've shown to you represent hypotheses,

Alle animationer jeg har vist jer repræsenterer hypoteser,

how my collaborators think a process works,

hvordan mine kollegaer tror en process virker,

based on the best information that they have.

baseret på det bedste information de har.

But for a lot of molecular processes,

Men for mange molekylære processer,

we're still really at the early stages of understanding things,

er vi stadig i de tidlige stadier af at forstå tingene,

and there's a lot to learn.

og der er meget at lære.

The truth is

Sandheden er

that these invisible molecular worlds are vast and largely unexplored.

at disse usynlige molekylære verdener er store og i det store hele uudforsket.

To me, these molecular landscapes

For mig, disse molekylære landskaber

are just as exciting to explore as a natural world

er ligeså spændende at udforske som den naturlige verden

that's visible all around us.

der er synlig omkring os.

Thank you.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)