How digital DNA could help you make better health choices | Jun Wang

66,257 views ・ 2017-10-02

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
Today I'm here, actually, to pose you a question.
0
12772
2568
00:15
What is life?
1
15876
1150
00:17
It has been really puzzling me for more than 25 years,
2
17560
3663
00:21
and will probably continue doing so for the next 25 years.
3
21247
3582
00:25
This is the thesis I did when I was still in undergraduate school.
4
25594
4571
00:31
While my colleagues still treated computers as big calculators,
5
31255
6942
00:38
I started to teach computers to learn.
6
38221
2301
00:41
I built digital lady beetles
7
41381
3383
00:44
and tried to learn from real lady beetles, just to do one thing:
8
44788
4587
00:49
search for food.
9
49399
1150
00:51
And after very simple neural network --
10
51141
2774
00:53
genetic algorithms and so on --
11
53939
2271
00:56
look at the pattern.
12
56234
1357
00:57
They're almost identical to real life.
13
57615
3022
01:01
A very striking learning experience for a twenty-year-old.
14
61797
3888
01:07
Life is a learning program.
15
67423
2907
01:12
When you look at all of this wonderful world,
16
72079
3533
01:15
every species has its own learning program.
17
75636
3192
01:19
The learning program is genome,
18
79405
2761
01:22
and the code of that program is DNA.
19
82190
3604
01:26
The different genomes of each species represent different survival strategies.
20
86977
5977
01:33
They represent hundreds of millions of years of evolution.
21
93438
4214
01:38
The interaction between every species' ancestor
22
98699
3792
01:42
and the environment.
23
102515
1970
01:45
I was really fascinated about the world,
24
105970
2439
01:48
about the DNA,
25
108433
1182
01:49
about, you know, the language of life,
26
109639
2943
01:52
the program of learning.
27
112606
1646
01:54
So I decided to co-found the institute to read them.
28
114587
4733
01:59
I read many of them.
29
119344
1362
02:01
We probably read more than half of the prior animal genomes in the world.
30
121409
4129
02:06
I mean, up to date.
31
126135
1404
02:09
We did learn a lot.
32
129263
1235
02:11
We did sequence, also, one species many, many times ...
33
131117
3868
02:15
human genome.
34
135009
1159
02:16
We sequenced the first Asian.
35
136192
1762
02:17
I sequenced it myself many, many times,
36
137978
2838
02:20
just to take advantage of that platform.
37
140840
2559
02:24
Look at all those repeating base pairs:
38
144788
2906
02:27
ATCG.
39
147718
1468
02:29
You don't understand anything there.
40
149210
1914
02:31
But look at that one base pair.
41
151148
1594
02:32
Those five letters, the AGGAA.
42
152766
2523
02:35
These five SNPs represent a very specific haplotype
43
155704
3477
02:39
in the Tibetan population
44
159205
1841
02:41
around the gene called EPAS1.
45
161070
1999
02:43
That gene has been proved --
46
163093
1731
02:44
it's highly selective --
47
164848
1263
02:46
it's the most significant signature of positive selection of Tibetans
48
166135
4347
02:50
for the higher altitude adaptation.
49
170506
1682
02:52
You know what?
50
172922
1214
02:54
These five SNPs were the result of integration of Denisovans,
51
174160
5787
02:59
or Denisovan-like individuals into humans.
52
179971
3252
03:04
This is the reason why we need to read those genomes.
53
184049
2531
03:06
To understand history,
54
186604
1381
03:08
to understand what kind of learning process
55
188009
4098
03:12
the genome has been through for the millions of years.
56
192131
3374
03:17
By reading a genome, it can give you a lot of information --
57
197318
2923
03:20
tells you the bugs in the genome --
58
200265
1673
03:21
I mean, birth defects, monogenetic disorders.
59
201962
3180
03:25
Reading a drop of blood
60
205166
1306
03:26
could tell you why you got a fever,
61
206496
2108
03:28
or it tells you which medicine and dosage needs to be used
62
208628
3104
03:31
when you're sick, especially for cancer.
63
211756
2721
03:35
A lot of things could be studied, but look at that:
64
215495
3120
03:38
30 years ago, we were still poor in China.
65
218639
2960
03:42
Only .67 percent of the Chinese adult population had diabetes.
66
222928
3662
03:47
Look at now: 11 percent.
67
227007
2143
03:49
Genetics cannot change over 30 years --
68
229697
3128
03:52
only one generation.
69
232849
1261
03:54
It must be something different.
70
234725
1627
03:56
Diet?
71
236376
1198
03:57
The environment?
72
237598
1150
03:59
Lifestyle?
73
239372
1150
04:01
Even identical twins could develop totally differently.
74
241219
4242
04:06
It could be one becomes very obese, the other is not.
75
246879
2877
04:10
One develops a cancer and the other does not.
76
250854
2502
04:13
Not mentioning living in a very stressed environment.
77
253380
4905
04:19
I moved to Shenzhen 10 years ago ...
78
259386
2595
04:22
for some reason, people may know.
79
262005
2738
04:25
If the gene's under stress,
80
265789
1939
04:27
it behaves totally differently.
81
267752
1667
04:30
Life is a journey.
82
270683
1381
04:32
A gene is just a starting point,
83
272637
2508
04:35
not the end.
84
275169
1150
04:37
You have this statistical risk of certain diseases when you are born.
85
277106
4488
04:42
But every day you make different choices,
86
282212
3563
04:45
and those choices will increase or decrease the risk of certain diseases.
87
285799
4538
04:51
But do you know where you are on the curve?
88
291248
2259
04:54
What's the past curve look like?
89
294263
2159
04:56
What kind of decisions are you facing every day?
90
296779
2465
04:59
And what kind of decision is the right one
91
299581
2467
05:02
to make your own right curve over your life journey?
92
302072
4234
05:07
What's that?
93
307265
1150
05:09
The only thing you cannot change,
94
309140
1969
05:11
you cannot reverse back,
95
311133
2181
05:13
is time.
96
313338
1228
05:14
Probably not yet; maybe in the future.
97
314590
2001
05:16
(Laughter)
98
316615
1110
05:17
Well, you cannot change the decision you've made,
99
317749
2819
05:20
but can we do something there?
100
320592
1541
05:22
Can we actually try to run multiple options on me,
101
322463
5102
05:27
and try to predict right on the consequence,
102
327589
3559
05:31
and be able to make the right choice?
103
331172
2183
05:33
After all,
104
333973
1172
05:35
we are our choices.
105
335169
1852
05:38
These lady beetles came to me afterwards.
106
338233
2574
05:41
25 years ago, I made the digital lady beetles
107
341462
3463
05:44
to try to simulate real lady beetles.
108
344949
1784
05:47
Can I make a digital me ...
109
347323
1785
05:49
to simulate me?
110
349717
1324
05:51
I understand the neural network could become
111
351775
2561
05:54
much more sophisticated and complicated there.
112
354360
3086
05:57
Can I make that one,
113
357470
1554
05:59
and try to run multiple options on that digital me --
114
359048
3882
06:02
to compute that?
115
362954
1260
06:04
Then I could live in different universes,
116
364845
2963
06:07
in parallel, at the same time.
117
367832
2764
06:10
Then I would choose whatever is good for me.
118
370968
2513
06:14
I probably have the most comprehensive digital me on the planet.
119
374063
3842
06:17
I've spent a lot of dollars on me, on myself.
120
377929
2657
06:21
And the digital me told me I have a genetic risk of gout
121
381807
5206
06:27
by all of those things there.
122
387037
1667
06:29
You need different technology to do that.
123
389074
2111
06:31
You need the proteins, genes,
124
391209
1570
06:32
you need metabolized antibodies,
125
392803
2526
06:35
you need to screen all your body
126
395353
2492
06:37
about the bacterias and viruses covering you, or in you.
127
397869
3624
06:41
You need to have all the smart devices there --
128
401517
2788
06:44
smart cars, smart house, smart tables,
129
404329
3416
06:47
smart watch, smart phone to track all of your activities there.
130
407769
3329
06:51
The environment is important --
131
411122
1477
06:52
everything's important --
132
412623
1221
06:53
and don't forget the smart toilet.
133
413868
1746
06:55
(Laughter)
134
415638
1031
06:56
It's such a waste, right?
135
416693
1774
06:58
Every day, so much invaluable information just has been flushed into the water.
136
418491
5685
07:04
And you need them.
137
424616
1236
07:05
You need to measure all of them.
138
425876
1524
07:07
You need to be able to measure everything around you
139
427424
2623
07:10
and compute them.
140
430071
1217
07:11
And the digital me told me I have a genetic defect.
141
431933
3883
07:16
I have a very high risk of gout.
142
436617
2071
07:19
I don't feel anything now,
143
439688
1597
07:21
I'm still healthy.
144
441309
1372
07:22
But look at my uric acid level.
145
442705
1501
07:24
It's double the normal range.
146
444230
1815
07:26
And the digital me searched all the medicine books,
147
446739
2821
07:29
and it tells me, "OK, you could drink burdock tea" --
148
449584
4168
07:33
I cannot even pronounce it right --
149
453776
1698
07:35
(Laughter)
150
455498
1035
07:36
That is from old Chinese wisdom.
151
456557
1814
07:38
And I drank that tea for three months.
152
458896
2759
07:41
My uric acid has now gone back to normal.
153
461679
2541
07:44
I mean, it worked for me.
154
464938
1675
07:46
All those thousands of years of wisdom worked for me.
155
466637
2516
07:49
I was lucky.
156
469177
1150
07:50
But I'm probably not lucky for you.
157
470684
3508
07:55
All of this existing knowledge in the world
158
475009
2165
07:57
cannot possibly be efficient enough or personalized enough for yourself.
159
477198
5824
08:03
The only way to make that digital me work ...
160
483692
2655
08:07
is to learn from yourself.
161
487244
2057
08:10
You have to ask a lot of questions about yourself:
162
490913
2404
08:13
"What if?" --
163
493341
1673
08:15
I'm being jet-lagged now here.
164
495038
1803
08:16
You don't probably see it, but I do.
165
496865
1958
08:19
What if I eat less?
166
499893
1792
08:21
When I took metformin, supposedly to live longer?
167
501709
2948
08:25
What if I climb Mt. Everest?
168
505394
1347
08:26
It's not that easy.
169
506765
1302
08:28
Or run a marathon?
170
508091
1330
08:29
What if I drink a bottle of mao-tai,
171
509952
2314
08:32
which is a Chinese liquor,
172
512290
1336
08:33
and I get really drunk?
173
513650
1194
08:34
I was doing a video rehearsal last time with the folks here,
174
514868
4429
08:39
when I was drunk,
175
519321
1269
08:40
and I totally delivered a different speech.
176
520614
2089
08:42
(Laughter)
177
522727
2869
08:45
What if I work less, right?
178
525620
2301
08:47
I have been less stressed, right?
179
527945
1882
08:49
So that probably never happened to me,
180
529851
1810
08:51
I was really stressed every day,
181
531685
2098
08:53
but I hope I could be less stressed.
182
533807
1966
08:56
These early studies told us,
183
536111
2179
08:58
even with the same banana,
184
538314
1983
09:00
we have totally different glucose-level reactions
185
540321
2987
09:03
over different individuals.
186
543332
1386
09:04
How about me?
187
544742
1150
09:06
What is the right breakfast for me?
188
546236
1998
09:08
I need to do two weeks of controlled experiments,
189
548258
2918
09:11
of testing all kinds of different food ingredients on me,
190
551200
3745
09:14
and check my body's reaction.
191
554969
2288
09:17
And I don't know the precise nutrition for me,
192
557281
3117
09:20
for myself.
193
560422
1150
09:23
Then I wanted to search all the Chinese old wisdom
194
563013
4364
09:27
about how I can live longer, and healthier.
195
567401
2992
09:30
I did it.
196
570709
1228
09:31
Some of them are really unachievable.
197
571961
2251
09:34
I did this once last October,
198
574562
2865
09:37
by not eating for seven days.
199
577451
1718
09:39
I did a fast for seven days with six partners of mine.
200
579969
4124
09:44
Look at those people.
201
584598
1259
09:45
One smile.
202
585881
1151
09:47
You know why he smiled?
203
587056
1151
09:48
He cheated.
204
588231
1167
09:49
(Laughter)
205
589422
1000
09:50
He drank one cup of coffee at night,
206
590446
3136
09:53
and we caught it from the data.
207
593606
1485
09:55
(Laughter)
208
595115
1045
09:56
We measured everything from the data.
209
596184
2460
09:58
We were able to track them,
210
598668
2214
10:00
and we could really see --
211
600906
1558
10:02
for example, my immune system,
212
602488
2001
10:04
just to give you a little hint there.
213
604513
1762
10:06
My immune system changed dramatically over 24 hours there.
214
606299
4304
10:11
And my antibody regulates my proteins
215
611738
3133
10:14
for that dramatic change.
216
614895
1536
10:16
And everybody was doing that.
217
616455
1381
10:17
Even if we're essentially totally different at the very beginning.
218
617860
3332
10:21
And that probably will be an interesting treatment in the future
219
621216
3045
10:24
for cancer and things like that.
220
624285
1643
10:25
It becomes very, very interesting.
221
625952
1630
10:28
But something you probably don't want to try,
222
628106
2701
10:30
like drinking fecal water from a healthier individual,
223
630831
3676
10:34
which will make you feel healthier.
224
634531
1667
10:36
This is from old Chinese wisdom.
225
636222
1715
10:37
Look at that, right?
226
637961
1436
10:39
Like 1,700 years ago,
227
639421
2166
10:41
it's already there, in the book.
228
641611
2280
10:44
But I still hate the smell.
229
644428
1327
10:46
(Laughter)
230
646057
1150
10:47
I want to find out the true way to do it,
231
647231
2406
10:49
maybe find a combination of cocktails of bacterias and drink it,
232
649661
4354
10:54
it probably will make me better.
233
654039
1524
10:55
So I'm trying to do that.
234
655587
1191
10:56
Even though I'm trying this hard,
235
656802
3002
10:59
it's so difficult to test out all possible conditions.
236
659828
5026
11:04
It's not possible to do all kinds of experiments at all ...
237
664878
5237
11:11
but we do have seven billion learning programs on this planet.
238
671161
3813
11:14
Seven billion.
239
674998
1266
11:16
And every program is running in different conditions
240
676288
3651
11:19
and doing different experiments.
241
679963
1781
11:21
Can we all measure them?
242
681768
1851
11:24
Seven years ago, I wrote an essay in "Science"
243
684782
3215
11:28
to celebrate the human genome's 10-year anniversary.
244
688021
3292
11:31
I said, "Sequence yourself,
245
691995
1654
11:33
for one and for all."
246
693673
1623
11:35
But now I'm going to say,
247
695618
1868
11:37
"Digitalize yourself for one and for all."
248
697510
3746
11:42
When we make this digital me into a digital we,
249
702095
5600
11:47
when we try to form an internet of life,
250
707719
3752
11:51
when people can learn from each other,
251
711495
2861
11:54
when people can learn from their experience,
252
714380
2707
11:57
their data,
253
717111
1731
11:58
when people can really form a digital me by themselves
254
718866
3601
12:02
and we learn from it,
255
722491
1611
12:05
the digital we will be totally different with a digital me.
256
725236
5732
12:10
But it can only come from the digital me.
257
730992
3420
12:15
And this is what I try to propose here.
258
735923
2979
12:19
Join me --
259
739941
1150
12:21
become we,
260
741764
1150
12:23
and everybody should build up their own digital me,
261
743612
4938
12:28
because only by that will you learn more about you,
262
748574
4519
12:33
about me,
263
753117
1424
12:34
about us ...
264
754565
1165
12:36
about the question I just posed at the very beginning:
265
756498
3680
12:40
"What is life?"
266
760202
1150
12:41
Thank you.
267
761886
1169
12:43
(Applause)
268
763079
5950
12:49
Chris Anderson: One quick question for you.
269
769053
2761
12:52
I mean, the work is amazing.
270
772638
1974
12:54
I suspect one question people have is,
271
774636
3198
12:57
as we look forward to these amazing technical possibilities
272
777858
3281
13:01
of personalized medicine,
273
781163
1361
13:02
in the near-term it feels like they're only going to be affordable
274
782548
3303
13:05
for a few people, right?
275
785875
1276
13:07
It costs many dollars to do all the sequencing and so forth.
276
787175
2991
13:10
Is this going to lead to a kind of,
277
790709
2912
13:13
you know, increasing inequality?
278
793645
2317
13:15
Or do you have this vision that the knowledge that you get
279
795986
3911
13:19
from the pioneers
280
799921
1352
13:21
can actually be pretty quickly disseminated
281
801297
2096
13:23
to help a broader set of recipients?
282
803417
4124
13:27
Jun Wang: Well, good question.
283
807565
1534
13:29
I'll tell you that seven years ago, when I co-founded BGI,
284
809123
3551
13:32
and served as the CEO of the company there,
285
812698
3405
13:36
the only goal there for me to do
286
816127
2381
13:38
was to drive the sequencing cost down.
287
818532
1983
13:40
It started from 100 million dollars per human genome.
288
820864
2775
13:43
Now, it's a couple hundred dollars for a human genome.
289
823663
2591
13:46
The only reason to do it is to get more people to benefit from it.
290
826278
3614
13:50
So for the digital me, it's the same thing.
291
830198
2157
13:52
Now, you probably need,
292
832379
1489
13:53
you know, one million dollars to digitize a person.
293
833892
3229
13:57
I think it has to be 100 dollars.
294
837621
1675
13:59
It has to be free for many of those people that urgently need that.
295
839807
4049
14:04
So this is our goal.
296
844192
1267
14:05
And it seems that with all this merging of the technology,
297
845813
3423
14:09
I'm thinking that in the very near future,
298
849260
2592
14:11
let's say three to five years,
299
851876
2365
14:14
it will come to reality.
300
854265
1482
14:15
And this is the whole idea of why I founded iCarbonX,
301
855771
3979
14:19
my second company.
302
859774
1219
14:21
It's really trying to get the cost down
303
861017
2868
14:23
to a level where every individual could have the benefit.
304
863909
3420
14:27
CA: All right, so the dream is not elite health services for few,
305
867353
3048
14:30
it's to really try
306
870425
1234
14:31
and actually make overall health care much more cost effective --
307
871683
3111
14:34
JW: But we started from some early adopters,
308
874818
2430
14:37
people believing ideas and so on,
309
877272
2506
14:39
but eventually, it will become everybody's benefit.
310
879802
3642
14:44
CA: Well, Jun, I think it's got to be true to say
311
884123
2333
14:46
you're one of the most amazing scientific minds on the planet,
312
886480
2958
14:49
and it's an honor to have you.
313
889462
1429
14:50
JW: Thank you.
314
890915
1158
14:52
(Applause)
315
892097
1150
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7