while we were here, the
night so let’s talk about stars
imagine a star firmament and
now please I want to ask you
keep alive I remember that image in
our memory
while I tell you how the scientists
we think or imagine that in the future
we could repair our brain well
the ability to imagine is unique to
human being we are the only living beings
of the planet with capacity to imagine
and he called himself capacity add up
other capabilities of which we have
seen examples here like that of creating
art in our own kitchen
solve complex problems in
biotechnology microbiology with
engineering the feeling of compassion for
other human beings for being aware
of the environment and our beaches
to talk and to daydream and if what
we see upside down each one of us is
actually what your brain feels
think and remember
that’s why when a disease
as neurodegenerative disease
Alzheimer causes the death of
innumerable neurons in our brain
our memories are lost
we stop being ourselves
the sad reality and in days that do not
we have a solution for these
diseases
we can not prevent them because when
manifest the first symptoms already
have lost too many neurons in
our brain and we can not replace
the brain damaged by a healthy brain
we know and can transplant almost
any organ
even the heart without the individual
lose your identity but the brain does not
is our identity and if we can not
replace the cd a damaged brain by
a whole healthy brain or part
of albertano and the rational part
we could ask ourselves if it would be possible
replace neurons that die in
the Alzheimer’s disease one at a time
to understand if it’s possible we do not have
to face the challenge and it is the enormous
complexity of our
black and complexity but the reason for
that complicity is double on the one hand the
huge number of cells that is in
our brain and I want you to come back
Now that image that you have left in the
brain of this imagined universe
you must know the number of neurons that
you have in your brain is the same
order of magnitude that the number of
stars in our galaxy the way
milky
in addition both das interconnected between
yes giving rise to complex circuits that
they give us those capabilities but it ‘s that
besides neurons are not the only ones
cells of our brain
there are other cells that we call
glial cells that are responsible for
keep the brain in good
conditions for neurons to be able
work correctly and from them the
more numerous are called astrocytes and
we call them that because they have a way of
star
if we zoomed with a telescope
in the image that you are seeing the
firmament we could see how we do
better the stars of that milky way
and if we zoom in with a microscope
inside our brain
this is the appearance of the astrocytes
as I say are more numerous than
neurons therefore imagine how many
astrocytes we can get to have in
our brain have been less
studied polyps we have maintained
whenever the human mind
it’s really the functioning of
our neurons but I’m going to let you
two curiosities about them one a data
the astrocytes resist the
neurodegenerative diseases are not
die Alzheimer’s disease and second
a curiosity so that we have
with them when the brain was analyzed
of Albert Einstein to find some
track your genius
one of the observations was that he had
today that I had more astrocytes in the
brain areas are in charge
of mathematics and imagination
well the contributor the first reason for
the complexity of our brain are
the more than 200,000 million cells
what we have in him
the second reason for that complexity is
that the brain is a changing organ
continuously our ability to
learn or adapt to the environment
the neuroscientists we call
cerebral plasticity that shape
simple comes to mean reinforcement
of the circuits most used by
that we have to exercise our neurons
just as we know we should exercise
our muscles
everything we learn changes our
brain or as albert would say
einstein also of intelligence is
the ability to change well and in this
so complex scenario with so many
cells and changing circuits
we can really consider establishing
neurons one at a time
to raise that possibility of seeing
what possibilities do we have and what
imagine with me two trips in the
weather
the first of those trips we’re going to
make the hand of the
neuroscientists for more than 100
years
neuroscience considered that it is not that
we were born with all the neurons put
and that during talk about life not
we incorporate new neurons are the
we lost and in the disease
neurodegenerative because we lost them more
quickly but about 30 years ago
We learned that frogs lizards
birds if they are able to incorporate
new neurons in adult life
fl perhaps the most beautiful case
we know of adult neurogenesis is
as we call it, we find it in the
songbirds for example the canaries
males every spring court their
females with the song of the song
It’s different every year
fascinating options that every year thousands
of neurons in the brain of a canary
male die and are rejected by
new neurons so that the bird
is established in functional circuits and
the bird will learn the song
It would be like the bird version of
summer success
Well, 20 years ago it also fell
the dogma for our own brain the
humans if we produce neurons in the
adult life
a few am and those neurons besides
they are functional they are integrated and they work
in fact where it helps us
discriminate new experiences of
past memories for example we
would allow us to discriminate parked the
car today we did not pay it yesterday or watching
this image of the firmament to
it’s a new image to make us evoke a
romantic night with someone very
specials behind well what does it mean
this generates new neurons in the
adult stage because our brains
we have what we call stem cells
neural that persist throughout
our life and generate new neurons
continuously perfect if we have
neural stem cells with this
potential
we could do that themselves
produce more neurons when they do
missing for example the process
degenerative for that with that
one possibility we will support them
good news the bad news the bad
news is that stem cells
neurals in our brains are
only in two specific areas of the brain
therefore they could help us to repair
other areas
the good news is that these cells
mother and these new neurons of our
brain are not taught that if a
neuron is generated again in the brain
in an adult brain is capable of
Integrate into functional circuits well
so if the stem cells are not
the solution
what alternative do we have to study
your alternative
I’m going to take you on the second trip in
time and this time we are going to do it in
the time of our fetal life or of
our life
all the cells of an adult come from
from a single cell that we call
zygote which is the union of an ovule and
a sperm and this single cell
is able to give it to the complete organism
because it has a book
instructions that have already spoken
before it’s the DNA
humans have 20,000 genes in that
DNA that is contained in the nucleus
of the zygote how we came to have
both in the adult more than 200 types
other than specialized cells
basically in simple terms
because every cell ends up seeing only
a part of the instruction book and
with that specializes in reality is
that even though he only uses one
part of your DNA still has all the
adn I had the original zygote
so we run a zygote we remove a
core and we replace it by the core
of an adult cell as they can
do it from our skin
we can get back an organism
complete to that we call it clear
let’s think about the sheep dolly goal and it was
created because the kernel was extracted from
an epithelial cell of a sheep
adult and was introduced in a zygote
that he had removed his own
core to that we call it reprogramming is
say the zygote is able to reprogram
the DNA of a specialized cell
adult or what it would be like when
recéis our phone restart the
original configuration therefore a
specialized cell has all the
has to give rise to another cell to
any other cell of the organism
the problem is that we think that the
handling that is necessary for
turn it into another would be very very
complex very difficult to start you
we were a zygote the zygote you know
He knew how to do it
until 2007 this is the
investigator shinya yamanaka he
showed that he could reprogram a
adult skin cell introducing
in them without need of zygote
introducing in it only four
genes
nowadays the method are techniques
simple
we have modified the method to
do it even to be able to transform
a specialized adult cell in another
special and specialized adult cell
whatever a kind of reset
partial agreement
therefore we can convert cells
specialty specialized adults of
one in others with a single
procedure in the year 2012 only
five years later his first
discovery shinya yamanaka received
the Nobel prize and had changed many
of our conceptions about cells
and what have we learned our two
trips we have learned on the one hand that
a neuron that is generated in the brain
adult is able to integrate into
functional circuits
that has been taught to us by
adult neurogenesis and the cells
mother neural in the second trip
we have learned that we can convert
a specialized adult cell in another
of another type
let’s go back to our damaged brain if
the neurons are the cells that are
move in a disease
neurodegenerative
maybe we should look at this one
that resist and as I said before the
astrocytes resist the disease
neurodegenerative
we return to do just five in the
telescope to our stars and
let’s zoom with the microscope to
inside of our brain
the neuroscientists we have already
turned astrocytes directly into
neurons in laboratory mice if in
the future we optimize the methodology and
because in a way that it can be
Safe applicable to human brain
we can repair therefore and in
definitive the future of terán euro
repair is not in the neurons the
future of the neuro repair is in
our astrocytes thank you
[Applause]
”
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