James Logan: How we're using dogs to sniff out malaria
James Logan: Cómo usamos a los perros para detectar la malaria
Professor James Logan leads an internationally renowned research program at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, presents television programs and has a passion for science and natural history. Full bio
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killers on the planet.
de los mayores asesinos del planeta.
in the last 20 years,
durante los últimos 20 años,
is still at risk from this disease.
aún está en riesgo por esta enfermedad.
dies from malaria.
muere a causa de la malaria.
se ha estancado.
when it comes to tackling malaria,
nos enfrentamos a muchos retos,
infected with malaria in the first place.
personas infectadas con la enfermedad.
some level of immunity to the disease,
un cierto grado de inmunidad ante ella,
and become infectious and still pass it on
because how do you find those people?
¿cómo encontramos a esa gente?
for a needle in a haystack.
to solve this problem for some years,
este problema durante años,
may have been right under our noses
puede haber estado bajo nuestras narices
with lots of really important statistics,
con muchas estadísticas importantes,
to just relax a little bit
a little bit as well.
a nice deep breath in ...
just through your nose,
the environment around you.
el entorno que los rodea.
the person who's sitting next to you.
que está sentada a su lado.
right into their armpit,
have a good old sniff,
huelan profundamente,
sensory experience there.
sensorial muy diferente.
something rather pleasant,
algo bastante agradable,
something a little bit less pleasant,
algo menos agradable,
bad breath or body odor.
o el olor corporal de alguien.
a good reason
don't like certain body smells.
no nos gustan ciertos olores corporales.
being associated with a smell.
que se asociaban con un olor.
smells like baked brown bread,
huele como pan integral horneado,
of a butcher shop, like raw meat.
una carnicería, como carne cruda.
at the sort of words that are used
de palabras que se emplean
"putrefacto" o "acre".
gets a bit of bad reputation.
un poco de mala reputación.
not exactly as a compliment, are you.
como un cumplido, ¿no?
to turn that on its head.
los olores de un modo positivo,
think about smell in a positive way,
cuando estamos enfermos,
by our bodies when we're ill,
that would allow us to do this,
que nos permitan hacerlo,
best sensors actually already exist,
del mundo ya existen,
according to their nose.
really important information
realmente importante
and you've entered this room.
hasta esta sala.
a really complex world.
with smells from everywhere.
desde todas partes.
that we're really smelly beasts.
que somos bestias muy olorosas.
different volatile chemicals.
sustancias químicas volátiles.
it's the seats you're sitting on,
sino también los asientos,
que la adhirió al suelo,
the carpet to the floor,
los árboles afuera ...
is producing an odor,
that the mosquito has to fly through,
de este mundo realmente complejo,
within that really complex world.
gets bitten by mosquitoes?
siempre lo pican los mosquitos.
annoying people that never get bitten.
a las que no los pican.
has a really hard job to find you,
le es difícil encontrarlos,
with the way you smell.
con el modo en que Uds. huelen.
mosquitoes smell repellent,
tienen un olor repelente,
para los mosquitos,
controlled by our genes.
son los que controlan eso.
a highly sophisticated sense of smell,
altamente sofisticado,
all the, sort of, odor sludge
de toda la mezcla de olores
and bite you as a blood meal.
y picarlos para alimentarse de su sangre.
if one of you was infected with malaria?
estuviera infectado con malaria?
at the malaria life cycle.
el ciclo de vida de la malaria.
has to bite somebody to become infected.
debe picar a alguien para ser infectado.
through the mouth part into the gut
de la boca hasta el intestino
through the gut, creates cysts,
all the way to the salivary glands,
hasta las glándulas salivales;
back into another person
nuevamente en otra persona
because it injects saliva as it bites.
ya que cuando pica inyecta saliva.
it goes through a whole other cycle,
atraviesa otro ciclo,
a liver stage, changes shape,
cambia de forma,
into the bloodstream again,
will become infectious.
about the parasite world
at manipulating their hosts
a sus huéspedes
lo sigan transmitiendo.
in the malaria system,
to do with odor that they manipulate,
between mosquitoes.
con los mosquitos.
manipulation hypothesis,
de la manipulación por la malaria,
working on over the last few years.
durante los últimos años.
that we wanted to do in our study
que queríamos investigar
an infection with malaria
to mosquitoes or not.
we designed an experiment
un experimento en Kenia,
children in Kenya, sleep inside tents.
niños de Kenia, dormían en tiendas.
into a chamber which contained mosquitoes,
a una cámara con mosquitos,
behaviorally respond.
con su comportamiento.
or fly away from the odors,
o se alejaban de ellos,
they liked them or not.
were infected with malaria,
estaban infectados con malaria,
had any symptoms whatsoever.
tenía síntomas.
it was really quite staggering.
fue realmente sorprendente.
than people who were uninfected.
que las que no lo estaban.
attracted to the child,"
atraídos por el niño",
before treatment and after treatment.
antes del tratamiento y después de él.
que no estaban infectadas,
a group of people who are uninfected,
towards the right-hand side,
that they're infectious.
en el que son infecciosos.
when people are infectious
se vuelven infecciosas
significantly more attractive.
más atractivas.
tratamiento a los niños
the children treatment
attractive trait that was there
de ser altamente atractivos
cleared the infection.
estaban libres de infección.
were more attractive,
los atraía más,
was manipulating its host in some way
al huésped de algún modo
a los mosquitos
to attract more mosquitoes
a más mosquitos
con su ciclo vital.
was find out what it was
the body odor from the participants,
el olor corporal de los participantes,
bags around their feet,
the volatile odors from their feet,
los olores volátiles de sus pies,
to mosquitoes.
para los mosquitos.
Anybody got cheesy feet back there?
con olor a queso.
and we collected the body odor.
y recolectamos el olor.
and olfaction, their sense of smell,
del olfato de los mosquitos
just one chemical that they detected,
solo una sustancia química,
de sustancias químicas
the right ratios,
con la proporción exacta,
de sustancias químicas.
like a musical composition.
or you play it too loud or too soft,
muy fuerte o muy suave
an ingredient wrong
con un ingrediente
it doesn't taste right.
no tiene buen sabor.
in the right combination.
químicas con la combinación correcta.
are not particularly good
no son muy buenas
it's quite complex.
es bastante compleja.
and what we do in my laboratory
y en mi laboratorio
to the antennae of a mosquito.
en las antenas de un mosquito.
to individual cells within the antennae,
individuales dentro de las antenas,
when you're doing this,
no quiere estornudar,
of the smell receptors in the antennae,
de los receptores olfativos en las antenas
what a mosquito is smelling.
que es lo que huele el mosquito.
what this looks like.
when I press this button,
cuando presione este botón;
with this response.
sort of blow a raspberry,
haciendo un chisporroteo,
potential when we stop the odor.
cuando detenemos el olor.
that you've seen an insect smelling
que vieron a un insecto olfateando
it's a weird concept, isn't it?
es un concepto raro, ¿no?
what the insect is detecting.
lo que detecta el insecto.
en nuestras muestras de malaria
with our malaria samples,
what the mosquito was detecting,
lo que el mosquito detectaba;
compounds, mainly aldehydes,
con la malaria, principalmente aldehídos,
that signified the malaria signal here.
que significaban la señal de la malaria.
what the smell of malaria is,
cómo huele la malaria,
of malaria actually is.
put a harness on a little mosquito
un arnés a un mosquito
and see if we can sniff people
para que olfatee a la gente
actually find people with malaria,
encontrar a la gente con malaria
that's not really possible.
that we can do that with.
con el que lo podemos hacer.
sense of smell,
un sentido del olfato increíble,
more special about them:
familiar with this concept at airports,
como en los aeropuertos,
and sniff out your luggage or yourself
o a nosotros mismos
or even food as well.
o incluso comida.
could we actually train dogs
si podíamos entrenar a los perros
el olor de la malaria.
called Medical Detection Dogs
Dogs", una entidad benéfica,
to learn the smell of malaria.
para que aprendan el olor de la malaria.
and did some more odor collection
y recolectamos un poco de olor
and uninfected,
y no infectados,
nylon stockings,
medias de nailon
to run the experiment.
de beneficencia para hacer el experimento.
and tell you about that experiment works,
y decirles cómo funciona el experimento,
with children or animals live,
con animales o con niños,
al escenario a Freya ...
the real star of the show.
if you can all just be a little bit quiet,
que se queden tranquilos,
environment for Freya.
That would be great.
lo más tranquilos posible.
is basically, we're going to ask Freya
of contraptions here,
contraptions, we have a pot,
tenemos un recipiente
worn by a child in the Gambia.
por un niño de Gambia.
by children who were uninfected,
por niños no infectados,
by a child who was infected with malaria.
infectado con malaria.
imagine these were people,
imaginen que estas son personas
and have a good sniff.
las olfateará profundamente.
when she senses the malaria,
cuando perciba la malaria,
in this very strange environment,
en este entorno extraño,
Mark didn't know.
Mark no sabía.
Sarah, was that correct?
Sarah, ¿fue correcto?
That is fantastic. Whew.
Es fantástico.
the pots around a little bit,
un poco los recipientes,
the one with malaria away,
that are containing socks from children
que contienen medias de niños
down the line and not stop at all.
seguir la línea sin detenerse.
people who are not infected,
quiénes no están infectados,
for a couple of years now,
durante un par de años
giving off a big signal.
que emite una gran señal.
Muchas gracias chicos.
for Freya, Mark and Sarah.
para Freya, Mark y Sarah.
She's going to get a treat later.
Luego le darán una galleta.
for your own eyes.
I was quite nervous about it.
Estaba muy nervioso.
and when we do this,
cuando hacemos esto,
can correctly tell us
nos pueden decir correctamente
81 percent of the time.
el 81 % de las veces.
when somebody does not have an infection.
cuando alguien no está infectado.
are actually above the criteria
por sobre el criterio
for a diagnostic.
por la Organización Mundial de la Salud.
at deploying dogs in countries,
en enviar perros a los países,
que tienen malaria.
and working on at the moment
trabajando y buscando
empower the individual
que empodere al individuo
when you're infected with malaria
si están infectados con malaria
technical, perhaps:
when you're infected with malaria.
cuando están infectados con malaria.
and we can collect data,
y podemos recopilar datos,
that we can collect on a global scale.
que podemos recolectar a escala mundial.
la propagación de las enfermedades,
the spread of diseases,
and respond to disease outbreaks,
y respondemos a brotes de enfermedades,
to the eradication of malaria,
a la erradicación de la malaria,
that we already know have a smell.
que ya sabemos que tienen un olor.
to find out what those smells are,
para encontrar esos olores,
y convertirlo en realidad.
with coming up with new ideas,
es desarrollar nuevas ideas,
greatest problems,
de los mayores problemas del mundo,
has already done this for us,
lo ha hecho por nosotros,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
James Logan - Biologist, medical entomologistProfessor James Logan leads an internationally renowned research program at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, presents television programs and has a passion for science and natural history.
Why you should listen
Professor James Logan's research group explores the complex interaction between arthropod vectors, and his groundbreaking research has led to the discovery of novel methods for the control of vectors that transmit pathogens that cause diseases such as malaria, Zika, dengue, trachoma and Lyme disease. His work extends into field evaluation of vector control tools in developing countries, and his recent research discovered that malaria infection causes changes in our body odor, making us more attractive to mosquitoes. He's now working on translating that to develop a novel, non-invasive diagnostic for malaria.
Logan is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and has a first-class BSc honours degree in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen and an award-winning PhD, which he completed in 2005. He is also an entrepreneur, having spun out two companies from his University, and holds the position of Director and Founder of ARCTEC and Director and Founder of Vecotech Ltd. Logan regularly advises UK government departments on aspects of vector biology, invasive species and vector control.
James Logan | Speaker | TED.com