TED2009
Kary Mullis: A next-gen cure for killer infections
Kary Mullis habla de la cura del futuro para infecciones mortales.
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Las bacterias resistentes a las medicinas que son capaces de matar, incluso en los mejores hospitales. Hoy, infecciones muy resistentes como el ántrax o el estafilococo pueden llevarse una sorpresa. El ganador del premio Nobel, Kary Mullis, quien vió como un amigo suyo murió a pesar de los potententes antibióticos, revela una novedosa cura que promete muchísimo.
Kary Mullis - Biochemist
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions. Full bio
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
So it was about four years ago, five years ago,
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Hará unos 4 ó 5 años,
00:21
I was sitting on a stage in Philadelphia, I think it was,
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estaba sentado en un escenario en Filadelfia, y creo que estaba,
00:23
with a bag similar to this.
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con un bolso como éste.
00:26
And I was pulling a molecule out of this bag.
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Y estaba sacando una molécula del bolso.
00:29
And I was saying, you don't know this molecule really well,
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Y deciá: ustedes no conocen ésta molécula muy bien.
00:32
but your body knows it extremely well.
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Pero su cuerpo la conoce a la perfección.
00:35
And I was thinking that your body hated it, at the time,
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Y para aquél entonces, pensaba que el cuerpo la odiaba.
00:39
because we are very immune to this. This is called alpha-gal epitope.
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Porque somos muy inmunes a ésta molécula, la llamada alpha-gal epítopo.
00:42
And the fact that pig heart valves have lots of these on them
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El hecho de que las válvulas del corazón de un cerdo estén llenas de ésta molécula
00:46
is the reason that you can't transplant a pig heart valve into a person easily.
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es la razón por la que no puedes trasplantar una válvula de corazón de cerdo a una persona, fácilmente.
00:50
Actually our body doesn't hate these.
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En realidad, nuestro cuerpo no las odia.
00:52
Our body loves these. It eats them.
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A nuestro cuerpo le encanta. Se las come.
00:55
I mean, the cells in our immune system are always hungry.
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Lo que quiero decir es: que las células en nuestro sistema inmunológico siempre están hambrientas.
00:58
And if an antibody is stuck to one of these things
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Y si un anticuerpo se pega a una de estas cosas
01:02
on the cell, it means "that's food."
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en la célula, significa: "esto es comida."
01:05
Now, I was thinking about that and I said, you know, we've got this
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Estuve pensando sobre eso y dije: "tenemos esta
01:07
immune response to this ridiculous molecule
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respuesta inmune a esta ridícula molécula
01:10
that we don't make, and we see it a lot in other animals and stuff.
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que no hacemos, y la vemos en cantidad en otros animales y cosas."
01:14
But I said we can't get rid of it,
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Pero pensé: No podemos deshacernos de ellas.
01:17
because all the people who tried to transplant heart valves
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Porque toda las personas que ha intentado trasplantar válvulas del corazón
01:19
found out you can't get rid of that immunity.
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descubrieron que no podían deshacerse de esa inmunidad.
01:21
And I said, why don't you use that?
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Y me dije: "¿por qué no usamos esto?
01:23
What if I could stick this molecule,
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¿Qué pasaría si pudiera adherir esta molécula,
01:26
slap it onto a bacteria
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fijarla a una bacteria
01:28
that was pathogenic to me, that had just invaded my lungs?
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que fuera patógena a mí, que acabase de invadir mis pulmones?
01:32
I mean I could immediately tap into
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Me refiero a que podría utilizar
01:34
an immune response that was already there,
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una respuesta inmunológica que ya está ahí.
01:36
where it was not going to take five or six days to develop it --
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Que no va a requerir 5 ó 6 días de desarrollo.
01:39
it was going to immediately attack whatever this thing was on.
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atacaría inmediatamente a cualquier cosa a la que la molécula estuviera adherida.
01:42
It was kind of like the same thing that happens when you,
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Es como lo que sucede
01:44
like when you're getting stopped for a traffic ticket in L.A.,
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cuando te detienen por exceso de velocidad en Los Angeles
01:48
and the cop drops a bag of marijuana in the back of your car,
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y el policía introduce una bolsa de marihuana en la parte trasera de tu carro,
01:51
and then charges you for possession of marijuana.
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y luego te acusa de posesión de marihuana.
01:54
It's like this very fast, very efficient way to get people off the street.
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Es una manera muy rápida, muy eficiente de sacar gente de las calles.
01:58
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
02:00
So you can take a bacteria
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Lo mismo, puedes tomar una bacteria
02:02
that really doesn't make these things at all,
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que no hace ninguna de éstas cosas
02:04
and if you could clamp these on it really well
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y sí pudieras adherirlas a ellas
02:06
you have it taken off the street.
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podrías sacarlas de las calles.
02:08
And for certain bacteria
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Para ciertas bacterias
02:10
we don't have really efficient ways to do that anymore.
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ya no tenemos maneras eficientes de hacerlo.
02:12
Our antibiotics are running out.
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Nuestros antibióticos se están acabando.
02:14
And, I mean, the world apparently is running out too.
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Y me refiero a que el mundo, aparentemente, se está acabando también...
02:17
So probably it doesn't matter 50 years from now --
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Probablemente de aquí a 50 años ya no tenga importancia;
02:20
streptococcus and stuff like that will be rampant --
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Los Estreptococos y otras bacterias estarán a sus anchas
02:23
because we won't be here. But if we are --
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porque nosotros ya no estaremos. Pero sí estuviéramos....?
02:25
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
02:27
we're going to need something to do with the bacteria.
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vamos a tener que hacer algo con las bacterias.
02:29
So I started working with this thing,
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De modo que comencé a trabajar con esto,
02:33
with a bunch of collaborators.
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junto con un grupo de colaboradores.
02:35
And trying to attach this to things that were
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Intentamos pegar esto a cosas que a su vez
02:38
themselves attached to certain specific target zones,
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se adhieran a determinadas zonas específicas,
02:42
bacteria that we don't like.
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a bacterias que no nos gusten.
02:44
And I feel now like George Bush.
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Me siento como George Bush.
02:48
It's like "mission accomplished."
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es como "Misión Cumplida"
02:50
So I might be doing something dumb, just like he was doing at the time.
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podría estar haciendo algo tonto, justo como él lo hizo en ese momento.
02:53
But basically what I was talking about there we've now gotten to work.
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Pero básicamente de lo que estaba hablando antes; ahora, logramos que funcione.
02:57
And it's killing bacteria. It's eating them.
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Y está matando bacterias. Se las está comiendo.
03:01
This thing can be stuck, like that little green triangle up there,
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Esta cosa puede adherirse, como este pequeño triángulo verde de arriba,
03:05
sort of symbolizing this right now.
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simbolizando esto aquí.
03:08
You can stick this to something called a DNA aptamer.
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Esto se puede adherir a algo llamado un "aptámero de ADN"
03:11
And that DNA aptamer will attach specifically
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Y el aptámero de ADN se adherirá específicamente
03:13
to a target that you have selected for it.
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al blanco que se haya seleccionado.
03:15
So you can find a little feature on a bacterium that you don't like,
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Entonces, podríamos encontrar un determinado rasgo de una bacteria que no nos guste
03:19
like Staphylococcus -- I don't like it in particular,
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como el Estafilococo. En particular a mí no me gustan,
03:22
because it killed a professor friend of mine last year.
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porque mató a un profesor amigo mío el año pasado.
03:25
It doesn't respond to antibiotics. So I don't like it.
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No responde a los antibióticos. Por eso no la quiero.
03:28
And I'm making an aptamer that will have this attached to it.
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Estoy construyendo un aptámero que tendrá esto adherido,
03:31
That will know how to find Staph when it's in your body,
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que sabrá cómo hallar a "Estaf" cuando esté en tu cuerpo,
03:34
and will alert your immune system to go after it.
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y que alertará a tu sistema inmune para que salga a buscarlo.
03:37
Here's what happened. See that line on the very top
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Esto es lo que sucedió. Ven la línea arriba en lo alto
03:40
with the little dots?
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con los puntos pequeños?
03:42
That's a bunch of mice that had been poisoned
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es un grupo de ratones que fueron envenenados
03:45
by our scientist friends down in Texas,
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por nuestros amigos científicos en Texas,
03:47
at Brooks Air Base, with anthrax.
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en la base aérea Brooks, con ántrax.
03:50
And they had also been treated with a drug that we made
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Ellos también han sido tratados con una droga que desarrollamos
03:53
that would attack anthrax in particular,
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que ataca al ántrax en particular,
03:56
and direct your immune system to it.
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y hace que tu sistema inmune se dirija hacia él.
03:58
You'll notice they all lived, the ones on the top line --
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Pueden ver que todos sobrevivieron, los de la línea de arriba.
04:00
that's a 100 percent survival rate.
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Eso es una tasa de supervivencia del 100%.
04:02
And they actually lived another 14 days,
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Y ellos realmente vivieron otros 14 días,
04:05
or 28 when we finally killed them,
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o 28, cuando finalmente los matamos,
04:07
and took them apart and figured out what went wrong.
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y los disecamos para ver que había fallado.
04:10
Why did they not die?
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Por qué no habían muerto?
04:12
And they didn't die because they didn't have anthrax anymore.
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No murieron porque ya no tenían ántrax.
04:15
So we did it. Okay?
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De modo que lo logramos, OK?
04:17
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
04:19
Mission accomplished!
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Misión Cumplida!
04:21
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kary Mullis - BiochemistKary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions.
Why you should listen
In the early 1980s, Kary Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, an elegant way to make copies of a DNA strand using the enzyme polymerase and some basic DNA "building blocks." The process opened the door to more in-depth study of DNA -- like the Human Genome Project. Mullis shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing this technique.
As he tells it, after winning the Nobel Prize, his next career move was to learn how to surf. It's typical of Mullis, whose scientific method is to get deeply curious about a topic, work it out from first principles, and then imagine the next giant leap forward. As he puts it in his Nobel autobiography, revised several times since 1993, "I read a lot, and think a lot, and I can talk about almost anything. Being a Nobel laureate is a license to be an expert in lots of things as long as you do your homework."
Most recently, he's been taking a hard look at immunity; a recent patent from his company Altermune describes the redirection of an existing immune response to a new pathogen.
Kary Mullis | Speaker | TED.com