How to build synthetic DNA and send it across the internet | Dan Gibson

Translator: Noel Iglesias Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

Alright, let me tell you about building synthetic cells

Ben, déixenme falarlles da fabricación de células artificiais

and printing life.

e de como imprimir vida.

But first, let me tell you a quick story.

Pero primeiro, voulles contar unha rápida historia.

On March 31, 2013,

O 31 de marzo de 2013,

my team and I received an email from an international health organization,

o meu equipo e mais eu recibimos un correo dunha organización de saúde internacional

alerting us that two men died in China

que nos alertaba da morte de dous homes en China

shortly after contracting the H7N9 bird flu.

pouco despois de contraer a gripe aviaria H7N9.

There were fears of a global pandemic

Temíase unha pandemia global,

as the virus started rapidly moving across China.

xa que o virus comezou a propagarse rapidamente na China.

Although methods existed to produce a flu vaccine

Era posible producir unha vacina contra a gripe

and stop the disease from spreading,

e deter a súa propagación,

at best, it would not be available for at least six months.

pero isto levaría polo menos seis meses.

This is because a slow, antiquated flu vaccine manufacturing process

O único método de produción que se tiña naquel momento

developed over 70 years ago was the only option.

era un proceso lento e anticuado, desenvolvido había xa 70 anos.

The virus would need to be isolated from infected patients,

Había que illar o virus de pacientes infectados,

packaged up and then sent to a facility

envasalo e envialo a un laboratorio,

where scientists would inject the virus into chicken eggs,

onde os científicos inxectarían o virus en ovos de galiña

and incubate those chicken eggs for several weeks

e incubaríanos durante varias semanas

in order to prepare the virus for the start of a multistep,

para preparar o virus e poder dar inicio a un proceso de numerosas etapas

multimonth flu vaccine manufacturing process.

de elaboración da vacina que levaría varios meses.

My team and I received this email

Eu e o meu equipo recibimos ese correo

because we had just invented a biological printer,

porque acabábamos de inventar unha impresora biolóxica

which would allow for the flu vaccine instructions

que permitiría que as instrucións da vacina

to be instantly downloaded from the internet and printed.

se descargasen e imprimisen desde Internet de forma inmediata,

Drastically speeding up the way in which flu vaccines are made,

acelerando drasticamente a produción da vacina

and potentially saving thousands of lives.

e potencialmente salvando milleiros de vidas.

The biological printer leverages our ability to read and write DNA

A impresora biolóxica fai uso da nosa habilidade

para ler e escribir ADN

and starts to bring into focus

e achéganos ao que nos gusta chamar "teletransporte biolóxico".

what we like to call biological teleportation.

I am a biologist and an engineer who builds stuff out of DNA.

Eu son biólogo e enxeñeiro, e constrúo cousas con ADN.

Believe it or not, one of my favorite things to do

Créano ou non, unha das cousas das que máis gozo

is to take DNA apart and put it back together

é desarmar ADN e xuntalo outra vez

so that I can understand better how it works.

entendendo mellor o seu funcionamento.

I can edit and program DNA to do things, just like coders programing a computer.

Podo editar e programar ADN como se programara unha computadora.

But my apps are different.

Pero as miñas apps son diferentes.

They create life.

Crean vida.

Self-replicating living cells and things like vaccines and therapeutics

Células vivas autorreplicantes e cousas como vacinas e terapias

that work in ways that were previously impossible.

que funcionan de formas antes consideradas imposibles.

Here's National Medal of Science recipient Craig Venter

Aquí temos a Craig Venter, gañador da Medalla Nacional de Ciencia,

and Nobel laureate Ham Smith.

e ao premio Nobel Ham Smith.

These two guys shared a similar vision.

Estes dous homes compartían a mesma idea:

That vision was, because all of the functions and characteristics

se todas a funcións e características de todas as entidades biolóxicas,

of all biological entities, including viruses and living cells,

incluíndo os virus e as células vivas,

are written into the code of DNA,

están escritas no código de ADN,

if one can read and write that code of DNA,

se se pode ler e escribir ese código de ADN

then they can be reconstructed in a distant location.

pódese reconstruír nunha localización remota.

This is what we mean by biological teleportation.

Isto mesmo é ao que nos referimos con teletransporte biolóxico.

To prove out this vision,

Para demostrar esta visión,

Craig and Ham set a goal of creating, for the first time,

Craig e Ham propuxéronse crear a primeira célula artificial

a synthetic cell, starting from DNA code in the computer.

usando código de ADN na computadora.

I mean, come on, as a scientist looking for a job,

Como científico que busca traballo

doing cutting-edge research, it doesn't get any better than this.

en investigacións de vangarda, é o mellor que podía pasar!

(Laughter)

(Risas)

OK, a genome is a complete set of DNA within an organism.

O xenoma é a totalidade do material xenético que ten un organismo.

Following the Human Genome Project in 2003,

Despois do Proxecto Xenoma Humano de 2003,

which was an international effort to identify

unha iniciativa internacional para identificar

the complete genetic blueprint of a human being,

e cartografar o xenoma completo do ser humano,

a genomics revolution happened.

desatouse unha revolución no campo da xenómica.

Scientists started mastering the techniques for reading DNA.

Os científicos comezaron a dominar as técnicas para descodificar ADN

In order to determine the order of the As, Cs, Ts and Gs

e así poder determinar a orde das bases A, C, T e G

within an organism.

dentro dun organismo.

But my job was far different.

O meu traballo foi diferente.

I needed to master the techniques for writing DNA.

Tiña que entender as técnicas para escribir ADN.

Like an author of a book,

Como o escritor dun libro,

this started out as writing short sentences,

comecei a escribir oracións curtas,

or sequences of DNA code,

ou secuencias de ADN,

but this soon turned into writing paragraphs

que axiña se converteron en parágrafos

and then full-on novels of DNA code,

e logo en novelas enteiras de ADN

to make important biological instructions for proteins and living cells.

con instrucións biolóxicas importantes para proteínas e células vivas.

Living cells are nature's most efficient machines at making new products,

As células vivas, son a mellor máquina natural para crear novos produtos,

accounting for the production

e son responsables da produción

of 25 percent of the total pharmaceutical market,

do 25% do mercado farmacéutico,

which is billions of dollars.

que vale miles de millóns de dólares.

We knew that writing DNA would drive this bioeconomy even more,

Sabíamos que a escritura de ADN impulsaría aínda máis esta bioeconomía,

once cells could be programmed just like computers.

cando puidéramos programar células igual que unha computadora.

We also knew that writing DNA would enable biological teleportation ...

Tamén sabíamos que esta escritura, posibilitaría o teletransporte biolóxico,

the printing of defined, biological material,

a impresión específica de material biolóxico

starting from DNA code.

a partir de un código de ADN.

As a step toward bringing these promises to fruition,

O paso inicial para cumprir este obxectivo,

our team set out to create, for the first time,

foi a pioneira creación

a synthetic bacterial cell,

dunha célula bacteriana sintética,

starting from DNA code in the computer.

a partir do código xenético almacenado na computadora.

Synthetic DNA is a commodity.

O ADN sintético é unha materia prima.

You can order very short pieces of DNA from a number of companies,

Existen compañías onde se pode encargar segmentos moi curtos de ADN,

and they will start from these four bottles of chemicals that make up DNA,

elaborados a partir de catro ingredientes básicos:

G, A, T and C,

G, A, T e C.

and they will build those very short pieces of DNA for you.

Fabrican os segmentos de ADN a pedido.

Over the past 15 years or so,

Durante os últimos 15 anos,

my teams have been developing the technology

os meus equipos desenvolveron a tecnoloxía

for stitching together those short pieces of DNA

para xuntar estes segmentos de ADN

into complete bacterial genomes.

e formar xenomas bacterianos completos.

The largest genome that we constructed contained over one million letters.

O xenoma máis grande que construímos tiña máis dun millón de letras.

Which is more than twice the size of your average novel,

É máis do dobre do tamaño dunha novela media

and we had to put every single one of those letters in the correct order,

e tivemos que poñer cada letra na orde correcta,

without a single typo.

sen unha soa gralla.

We were able to accomplish this by developing a procedure

Lográmolo desenvolvendo un procedemento que intentei bautizar

that I tried to call the "one-step isothermal in vitro recombination method."

"método de recombinación isotérmica in vitro dun solo paso"

(Laughter)

(Risas)

But, surprisingly, the science community didn't like this technically accurate name

Sorprendentemente, á comunidade científica non lle gustou un nome tan preciso

and decided to call it Gibson Assembly.

e decidiron chamarlle "ensamblaxe de Gibson".

Gibson Assembly is now the gold standard tool,

A ensamblaxe de Gibson é a ferramenta modelo

used in laboratories around the world

que se usa hoxe nos laboratorios de todo o mundo

for building short and long pieces of DNA.

para construír segmentos de ADN, sexan curtos ou longos.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

Once we chemically synthesized the complete bacterial genome,

Unha vez sintetizado quimicamente o xenoma bacteriano completo,

our next challenge was to find a way

o seguinte era encontrar a maneira

to convert it into a free-living, self-replicating cell.

de convertelo nunha célula viva independente e autorreplicante.

Our approach was to think of the genome as the operating system of the cell,

Para nós, o xenoma era como o sistema operativo da célula

with the cell containing the hardware necessary to boot up the genome.

e a célula contiña o hardware necesario para iniciar o xenoma.

Through a lot of trial and error,

Logo de ensaios de proba e erro,

we developed a procedure where we could reprogram cells

desenvolvemos un procedemento para reprogramar células,

and even convert one bacterial species into another,

e incluso converter unha especie bacteriana noutra distinta

by replacing the genome of one cell with that of another.

substituíndo o xenoma dunha célula polo xenoma doutra.

This genome transplantation technology then paved the way

Esta tecnoloxía de transplante dos xenomas abriu o camiño

for the booting-up of genomes written by scientists

para iniciar xenomas creados por científicos

and not by Mother Nature.

e non pola nai natureza.

In 2010, all of the technologies

En 2010, todas as tecnoloxías que fomos creando

that we had been developing for reading and writing DNA

para ler e escribir ADN

all came together when we announced the creation

deron por fin os seus froitos cando anunciamos a creación

of the first synthetic cell,

da primeira célula sintética,

which of course, we called Synthia.

á que loxicamente lle chamamos Synthia.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Ever since the first bacterial genome was sequenced, back in 1995,

Dende que se secuenciou o primeiro xenoma bacteriano en 1995,

thousands more whole bacterial genomes have been sequenced and stored

milleiros de xenomas bacterianos foron secuenciados na súa totalidade

in computer databases.

e arquivados en bases.

Our synthetic cell work was the proof of concept

O noso traballo con células artificiais demostrou

that we could reverse this process:

que o proceso se podía reverter:

pull a complete bacterial genome sequence out of the computer

podíase coller dunha computadora un xenoma bacteriano completo

and convert that information into a free-living, self-replicating cell,

e converter a información nunha célula independente e autorreplicante

with all of the expected characteristics of the species that we constructed.

con todas as características esperables, para a especie que creamos.

Now I can understand why there may be concerns

Podo entender que haxa preocupación

about the safety of this level of genetic manipulation.

en canto á seguridade desta manipulación xenética.

While the technology has the potential for great societal benefit,

Temos claro que a tecnoloxía ten potencial para beneficiar moito a nosa sociedade,

it also has the potential for doing harm.

pero tamén ten potencial para facer dano.

With this in mind, even before carrying out the very first experiment,

Tendo esto en conta, antes de desenvolver o primeiro experimento,

our team started to work with the public and the government

o noso equipo traballou coa cidadanía e co Goberno

to find solutions together

para achar solucións xuntos

to responsibly develop and regulate this new technology.

que axudaran a desenvolver e regular esta tecnoloxía

One of the outcomes from those discussions was to screen every customer

Unha das solucións consistiu en analizar cada cliente

and every customer's DNA synthesis orders,

e cada pedido de ADN sintético

to make sure that pathogens or toxins are not being made by bad guys,

para asegurarse de non crear patóxenos e toxinas por encargo de delincuentes,

or accidentally by scientists.

ou para evitar erros dos científicos.

All suspicious orders are reported to the FBI

Todos os pedidos sospeitosos son denunciados ao FBI

and other relevant law-enforcement agencies.

e a outros organismos de seguridade.

Synthetic cell technologies will power the next industrial revolution

A tecnoloxía das células artificiais levaranos á próxima Revolución Industrial,

and transform industries and economies

e os cambios que se xerarán nas industrias e nas economías

in ways that address global sustainability challenges.

permitirannos enfrontar o desafío global da sustentabilidade.

The possibilities are endless.

As posibilidades son infinitas.

I mean, you can think of clothes

Poderíamos elaborar prendas

constructed form renewable biobased sources,

con materiais renovables de base biolóxica,

cars running on biofuel from engineered microbes,

biocombustible para vehículos a partir de microbios modificados,

plastics made from biodegradable polymers

plásticos a partir de polímeros biodegradables

and customized therapies, printed at a patient's bedside.

e terapias personalizadas, impresas no cuarto do paciente.

The massive efforts to create synthetic cells

O xigantesco traballo que fixemos con estas células

have made us world leaders at writing DNA.

converteunos en líderes mundiais na xeración de ADN.

Throughout the process, we found ways to write DNA faster,

No noso camiño, atopamos modos de xerar ADN moito máis rápido,

more accurately and more reliably.

con maior exactitude e máis confianza.

Because of the robustness of these technologies,

A solidez destas tecnoloxías

we found that we could readily automate the processes

permitiunos automatizar os procesos facilmente

and move the laboratory workflows out of the scientist's hands

e transferir os protocolos de laboratorio a unha máquina.

and onto a machine.

In 2013, we built the first DNA printer.

En 2013 construímos a primeira impresora de ADN.

We call it the BioXp.

Chamámoslle "BioXp".

And it has been absolutely essential in writing DNA

A máquina foi crucial no proceso de escribir ADN

across a number of applications

nunha cantidade de aplicacións

my team and researchers around the world are working on.

en que o meu equipo está colaborando con investigadores de todo o mundo.

It was shortly after we built the BioXp

Ao pouco tempo de construir a BioXp

that we received that email about the H7N9 bird flu scare in China.

foi cando recibimos o correo sobre a gripe aviaria H7N9 en China.

A team of Chinese scientists had already isolated the virus,

Un equipo de científicos chineses xa conseguira illar o virus,

sequenced its DNA and uploaded the DNA sequence to the internet.

secuenciar o seu ADN e subilo a Internet.

At the request of the US government, we downloaded the DNA sequence

A pedimento do goberno de EE.UU., descargamos a secuencia de ADN

and in less than 12 hours, we printed it on the BioXp.

e en menos de 12 horas, imprimímola na BioXp.

Our collaborators at Novartis

Os nosos colaboradores de Novartis

then quickly started turning that synthetic DNA into a flu vaccine.

comezaron axiña a converter ese ADN sintético nunha vacina antigripal.

Meanwhile, the CDC, using technology dating back to the 1940s,

En tanto, o Centro de Control de Enfermidades, con tecnoloxía do anos 40,

was still waiting for the virus to arrive from China

aínda estaba esperando que o virus chegara de China

so that they could begin their egg-based approach.

para poder comezar co método dos ovos.

For the first time, we had a flu vaccine developed ahead of time

Por primeira vez, tiñamos unha vacina antigripal, en tempo récord,

for a new and potentially dangerous strain,

contra unha cepa nova e potencialmente perigosa,

and the US government ordered a stockpile.

e o Goberno dos EE.UU. fixo un pedido.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

This was when I began to appreciate, more than ever,

Nese momento, comencei a apreciar máis que nunca

the power of biological teleportation.

o poder do teletransporte biolóxico.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Naturally, with this in mind,

Como é evidente, con esto en mente,

we started to build a biological teleporter.

construímos un teletransportador biolóxico.

We call it the DBC.

Chamámoslle DBC,

That's short for digital-to-biological converter.

abreviatura de "convertedor dixital-biolóxico"

Unlike the BioXp,

A diferenza da BioXp,

which starts from pre-manufactured short pieces of DNA,

que traballa con segmentos curtos de ADN prefabricados

the DBC starts from digitized DNA code

o DBC toma código de ADN dixitalizado

and converts that DNA code into biological entities,

e convérteo en entidades biolóxicas,

such as DNA, RNA, proteins or even viruses.

como ADN, ARN, proteínas e incluso virus.

You can think of the BioXp as a DVD player,

Poderíase dicir que a BioXp é como un reprodutor de DVD,

requiring a physical DVD to be inserted,

que precisa que se lle insira un disco físico,

whereas the DBC is Netflix.

mentres que o DBC é como Netflix.

To build the DBC,

Para crear o DBC,

my team of scientists worked with software and instrumentation engineers

o meu equipo colaborou con enxeñeiros en software e instrumentación

to collapse multiple laboratory workflows,

para integrar unha multitude de protocolos de laboratorio

all in a single box.

nunha única máquina.

This included software algorithms to predict what DNA to build,

Esto incluíu algoritmos para determinar o ADN que se vai fabricar,

chemistry to link the G, A, T and C building blocks of DNA into short pieces,

química para unir as bases de ADN G, A, T e C e formar segmentos curtos,

Gibson Assembly to stitch together those short pieces into much longer ones,

a ensamblaxe de Gibson para unilos e formar outros máis longos

and biology to convert the DNA into other biological entities,

e bioloxía para converter o ADN noutras entidades biolóxicas,

such as proteins.

como as proteínas.

This is the prototype.

Este é o prototipo.

Although it wasn't pretty, it was effective.

Non era bonito, pero era efectivo.

It made therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

Fabricaba medicamentos e vacinas,

And laboratory workflows that once took weeks or months

e protocolos de laboratorio, que antes levaban semanas ou meses,

could now be carried out in just one to two days.

ahora podían executarse tan só nun día ou dous.

And that's all without any human intervention

Todo sen intervención humana

and simply activated by the receipt of an email

e activado de forma sinxela por un correo electrónico

which could be sent from anywhere in the world.

que podía ser enviado dende calquera parte do mundo.

We like to compare the DBC to fax machines.

Gústanos comparar o DBC coas máquinas de fax.

But whereas fax machines received images and documents,

A diferenza é que as máquinas de fax recibían imaxes e documentos,

the DBC receives biological materials.

e o DBC recibe materiais biolóxicos.

Now, consider how fax machines have evolved.

Pensen agora na evolución das máquinas de fax.

The prototype of the 1840s is unrecognizable,

O prototipo da década de 1840 é irrecoñecible

compared with the fax machines of today.

comparado cos fax que hai hoxe.

In the 1980s, most people still didn't know what a fax machine was,

Nos anos 80, a maioría da xente aínda non sabía o que era o fax,

and if they did,

e se o sabían,

it was difficult for them to grasp the concept

resultaba difícil de entender o concepto

of instantly reproducing an image on the other side of the world.

de que unha imaxe se reproducía instantaneamente noutra parte do mundo.

But nowadays, everything that a fax machine does

Hoxe, todas as tarefas dun fax están integradas

is integrated on our smart phones,

nos nosos teléfonos intelixentes,

and of course, we take this rapid exchange of digital information for granted.

e por suposto, damos por feito este veloz intercambio de información dixital.

Here's what our DBC looks like today.

O noso DBC hoxe en día vese así.

We imagine the DBC evolving in similar ways as fax machines have.

Prevemos que o DBC evolucionará de maneira similar á maquina de fax.

We're working to reduce the size of the instrument,

Traballamos para reducir o seu tamaño,

and we're working to make the underlying technology

e para facer que a tecnoloxía de base

more reliable, cheaper, faster and more accurate.

sexa máis fiable, económica, veloz e exacta.

Accuracy is extremely important when synthesizing DNA,

A exactitude é o máis importante na síntese de ADN,

because a single change to a DNA letter

xa que cambiar tan só unha letra do ADN

could mean the difference between a medicine working or not

pode determinar se un medicamento funciona ou non,

or synthetic cell being alive or dead.

ou se unha célula sintética está viva ou morta.

The DBC will be useful for the distributed manufacturing

O DBC será útil na fabricación distribuída

of medicine starting from DNA.

de medicamentos a partir de ADN.

Every hospital in the world could use a DBC

Todos os hospitais do mundo poderían usar un DBC

for printing personalized medicines for a patient at their bedside.

para imprimir medicamentos personalizados para cada paciente no seu cuarto.

I can even imagine a day when it's routine for people to have a DBC

Ata podo imaxinar que chegará o día no que será normal ter un DBC na casa

to connect to their home computer or smart phone

conectado á computadora ou ao móbil

as a means to download their prescriptions,

para descargar receitas médicas,

such as insulin or antibody therapies.

como insulina ou terapias de anticorpos.

The DBC will also be valuable when placed in strategic areas around the world,

O DBC tamén será útil en sitios estratéxicos de todo o mundo

for rapid response to disease outbreaks.

para responder rapidamente a brotes de enfermidades.

For example, the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia

Por exemplo, o CDC en Atlanta, Georgia,

could send flu vaccine instructions to a DBC on the other side of the world,

podería enviar instrucións a un DBC ao outro lado do mundo

where the flu vaccine is manufactured right on the front lines.

para fabricar unha vacina antigripal directamente onde se precisa.

That flu vaccine could even be specifically tailored to the flu strain

Podería incluso ser unha vacina específica para a cepa da gripe

that's circulating in that local area.

que está circulando nesa zona.

Sending vaccines around in a digital file,

Enviar vacinas nun arquivo dixital,

rather than stockpiling those same vaccines and shipping them out,

en lugar de almacenalas e envialas fisicamente.

promises to save thousands of lives.

promete salvar milleiros de vidas.

Of course, the applications go as far as the imagination goes.

Por suposto, podemos imaxinar todo tipo de aplicacións.

It's not hard to imagine placing a DBC on another planet.

Non é difícil imaxinar un DBC instalado noutro planeta.

Scientists on Earth could then send the digital instructions to that DBC

Os científicos poderían mandar a ese DBC instrucións dixitais dende a Terra

to make new medicines or to make synthetic organisms

para fabricar novos medicamentos ou para crear organismos sintéticos

that produce oxygen, food, fuel or building materials,

que produzan osíxeno, alimento, combustible ou materiais de construción

as a means for making the planet more habitable for humans.

co obxectivo de facer ese planeta máis apto para a vida humana.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

With digital information traveling at the speed of light,

Xa que a información dixital viaxa á velocidade da luz,

it would only take minutes to send those digital instructions

sería cuestión de minutos enviar esas instrucións

from Earth to Mars,

da Terra a Marte,

but it would take months to physically deliver those same samples

pero levaríanos meses enviar as mesmas mostras fisicamente

on a spacecraft.

nunha nave espacial.

But for now, I would be satisfied beaming new medicines across the globe,

Por agora, conformaríame con enviar novos medicamentos por todo o mundo

fully automated and on demand,

de forma automática e baixo pedido,

saving lives from emerging infectious diseases

salvar vidas de novas enfermidades infecciosas

and printing personalized cancer medicines for those who don't have time to wait.

e imprimir menciñas contra o cancro, para os pacientes que non poden esperar.

Thank you.

Grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)