[Applause]
one of you is able to recognize
this picture
well this is the ancestor of what
that today we know as corn
they make is the difference between this image
and the previous one is that thousands of
years
however, already then we were able
to perform genetic manipulation
as strange as this may seem to us
example is the case of all
dog varieties that nowadays
we know all of them derive from the
first domesticated wolves
For a long time now we
we have been able to manipulate life
however the techniques that we use
they were very rudimentary they were effective
but very inefficient we have taken
thousands of years to get where we are
today
however now thanks to the advance of
The science
we are very close to being able to affirm that
we can do with life the same thing that
with computers programs in this
revolution is essential
the discovery of the structure
DNA molecular DNA is the
molecule responsible for warehouse
store the necessary information to
life and to transmit it in the
offspring well once
discovered and understood the language of
life
the next step is to learn to
manipulate it
To this end, a series of
techniques commonly known as
techniques of cutting and gluing of genes that
they have allowed us to solve many
problems problems such as a
problem related to diabetes the
Diabetes is a disease that affects
more than 400 million to more than 400
millions of people around the world
in fact here in the state
I’m sure at least 25
people are diabetic and insurance sure
we all know some true example
Well, the older diabetics
sure they still remember that the
insulin that was administered was
porcine that is to say it was insulin that
it would be directly from the pancreas of
the pigs and how can you imagine this
it had its consequences
sometimes our body recognized
this insulin as strange and this
produced allergy cases cases of
rejection
well biotechnologists who saw
a big problem here they decided
get down to work and what
they did was enter the information
genetics of human insulin inside
of yeast to get
yeasts that same as we use
yeasts to brew beer what
that we got was yeasts capable of
manufacture human insulin
since then the quality of life of
many days of many diabetics has
improved in large quantity
this is just an example and this
technique is to has not been improved to has
helped to improve the quality of life of
many people is much more efficient
that what we had until
then however it presents some
limitations
first the amount of information that
we can manipulate is limited limits
our possibilities
also the result of this
manipulation is difficult to predict and
this let’s say it ‘s I like to tell the
analogy not that many times the
scientists what we do in the
laboratory is a kind of play
the dice we throw the dice and see
the result for which happens well then
these two these limitations these two
big problems have an origin
common and is the lack of standardization
explained
right now the biotechnologists
we find in a very situation
similar to what the mills lived
electronic the last century in the
last century the engineers
electronic devices invested a lot of effort
in getting is to channel all the
all the pieces that they had for
so that we can better develop
technology with six circuits
integrated and everything that has derived in
what there is
we see how informative all this are
fundamental elements of
devices that we use today
because I’m sure we all have in
the pocket a mobile phone
Well, we could biotechnologists
They reach level of control and accuracy
that engineers have today
electronic
we could do with the cells what
same as engineers do
electronic with computers
In short, we could program the
life biotechnologists believe
firmly that yes and indeed we are
already working on it we are starting
to analyze these pieces but for
be able to advance however these pieces
for us they are not switches
they are capacitors are not transistors
our pieces are genes are those
pieces of information that we
we introduce in the cells
these pieces work like pieces of
We are able to perform
different combinations of these from
these pieces introduce them in the
cells and get a result
also this result thanks to this
measure the standardization to dcp
predictable is to say that a
piece with a piece sees the result of
vote and be able to predict what before
enter it inside the cell
this seems very radical is what
it is called synthetic biology and
done is already starting to give its
fruits
one of the greatest successes is
related to the fight against
malaria
malaria is a disease that causes
more than 400 thousand deaths per year and one of
the biggest problems is the difficult
access to treatment that has the
population
the problem this treatment is
based on the drug artemisinin that
you get directly from artemisia
annua an extraction plant is
complex and expensive the final product
so many people can not
allow
to solve it the biotechnologists
again they got a plan what
they did it was a very intense study very
exhaustive of all the information
genetics that the plant needs to
produce this drug
once determined information what
was made was cut it and put it you start
standards
then they combined introduced inside
a yeast
in this way what was obtained was a
yeast capable of manufacturing artemisinin
and I know that right now it is
dispensing but this looks a lot like
what we just had with the
insulin truth of your human life
well it is not, this is much more
complex and information that is needed
to manipulate is much greater
this we can really say that it is
reprogram a whole cell to
get to do what it is what you
you want me to do this is biology
synthetic and this is just one of the
many projects that are already
carrying out and indeed many of
these synthetic biology projects
are encompassed within the context and hem and
hem is a biology contest
synthetic organized by the slogan itif
in Boston in the year
students from the best universities
from all over the world they come together to
present your biology projects
synthetic
It should also be emphasized that it is very important
these projects are always
intended to solve real problems
real-life problems
also special mention not here the
university we have presented
we have equipment and that we will present
for ten years in fact in
last October
we re-introduced ourselves and we
We have not known all of our
I work with two special prizes
better best hardware and the best software
with all this
thank you very much
one of the most characteristic
important in this contest besides
all innovative projects is their
character of democratization
what synthetic biology intends
in general and the gene in particular is that
everyone is able to access
these tools
democratize science so that it does not
only from institutions with older
resources or those universities more
prestigious women have access to this
information
for this they choose what they have is a
repository of pieces a deposit where
all the teams are leaving there all
the pieces that develop year-round
so that any future teams of
researchers or anyone who
want you can order those parts for
produce new combinations and give
solution to new problems problems
as for example the accumulation of
plastic on the planet a problem
current that everyone knows and that some
students were raised said how
we can solve this problem and what
what they did was develop a
bacteria that on one side of the key
plastic but it is also for another
side is able to transform this
plastic in antibiotics
we clean the planet those who also
we help save lives solution
thanks to synthetic biology
another problem is the intensive use of
clear pesticides
besides, this case is special because it
he developed here at the university
Polytechnic of Valencia a few years ago
what we thought was because the
plants need this pesticide because
they could not be able to fight
against insects and what we did was
develop plants capable of liberal
in the pheromones environment to go to
these insects
so that the use was necessary
of pesticides another great example is the
case of those diseases of
Difficult diagnosis are diseases
that although they have their treatment
difficult detection makes many
sometimes they are deadly it would not be great
have a simple easy system that
everyone can use at home
to be able to diagnose a faith
well this was what they thought a
group of students and what they did
was to develop a small yogurt
liquid that contains the bacteria and
these bacteria are able to change
of color according to detecting a disease
or another way that we see ourselves the
liquid and good yogurt depending on the
result of the next day you may know
If you have an illness or other
Finally, it is also a problem that
it is quite related to these
last weeks not with the Celtic rise
of the price of light consumption
energy is a problem that everyone
we would have liked the latter
weeks not having to turn on the
house switch to not pay as much
light well the students what
they did was develop a plant
bioluminescent a plant capable of
illuminate our houses
all these are ideas that are already
carrying out however the biology
synthetic poses other faces same us
they look like absolute science fiction
for example, who would not like
plant a seed and grow all the
true tree house would be great
with all this what you have to
convey that synthetic biology
gives us the possibility of a rainbow of
possibilities
many of which not even
we still come to imagine
we have been doing thousands of years
genetic manipulation however
you are very rudimentary we go
practically city
now we are at the moment we have
reached a precision what
high enough and we are
analyzed all these pieces to be
able to do the same with life
that with computers be able to
schedule the girls
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
me
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