Ed Boyden: A new way to study the brain's invisible secrets
אד בוידן: איך חיתולים עוררו השראה להמצאת דרך חדשה לחקר המוח
Ed Boyden is a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
when you add water to them,
by millions of kids every day.
in a very clever way.
called a swellable material.
when you add water,
industrial kind of polymer.
in my group at MIT
something similar to the brain.
can peer inside
the biomolecules,
הביו-מולקולות,
structure of the brain, if you will?
of how the brain is organized
the exact changes in the brain
את השינויים החלים במוח
and epilepsy and Parkinson's,
treatments, much less cures,
ועוד פחות אמצעי ריפוי,
we don't know the cause or the origins
איננו יודעים מה מקורן
a different point of view
been done over the last hundred years.
how to build technologies
incredibly complicated.
over the first century of neuroscience
במאה הראשונה של חקר מדעי המוח
complicated network,
cells called neurons
through these complexly shaped neurons.
דרך הנוירונים המורכבים הללו.
are connected in networks.
called synapses that exchange chemicals
הנקראים סינפסות,
המאפשרים לנוירונים לשוחח בינהם.
to talk to each other.
our artist's rendition of it.
and thousands of kinds of biomolecules,
organized in complex, 3D patterns,
המאורגנות בדפוסי תלת-מימד מורכבים,
those electrical pulses,
that allow neurons to work together
לפעול יחד
and feelings and so forth.
the neurons in the brain are organized
כיצד מאורגנים הנוירונים במוח
the biomolecules are organized
והמורכבות הללו.
of molecules and neurons
של מולקולות ונוירונים,
how the brain conducts information
איך המוח מעביר מידע
of molecular changes that occur
על השינויים המולקולריים המתרחשים
those molecules have changed,
or changed in pattern,
as targets for new drugs,
energy into the brain
להעברת אנרגיה לתוך המוח,
computations that are afflicted
from brain disorders.
technologies over the last century
במאה האחרונה
that they are noninvasive,
or voxels, as they're called,
and millions of neurons.
the molecular changes that occur
אילו שינויים מולקולריים התרחשו
of these networks
to be conscious and powerful beings.
you have microscopes.
to look at little tiny things.
כדי להתבונן בדברים זעירים,
to look at things like bacteria.
כדי לבחון דברים כמו חיידקים.
were discovered in the first place,
לגלות את הנוירונים,
with a regular old microscope.
עם מיקרוסקופ ישן ורגיל.
to see the brain more powerful,
את יכולתנו לבחון את המוח,
even better technologies.
started thinking:
to zoom in to the brain,
פאי צ'אן ופול טילברג.
Fei Chen and Paul Tillberg.
are helping with this process.
if we could take polymers,
within the brain.
ואז להוסיף מים,
and you add water,
those tiny biomolecules from each other.
להבחין בין הביו-מולקולות הזעירות.
and get maps of the brain.
ולקבל מפות של המוח.
just to buy it off the Internet
that actually occur in these diapers.
הנמצאים בתוך החיתולים.
of the baby diaper material
by about a thousandfold
בערך פי אלף מנפחו המקורי
very interesting molecule,
to really zoom in on the brain
with past technologies.
in the baby diaper polymer?
what you see on the screen.
כמו מה שאתם רואים על המסך.
arranged in long, thin lines.
המסודרות בקווים ארוכים ודקים.
move everything apart in the brain.
is going to absorb the water,
apart from each other,
is going to become bigger.
these polymer chains inside the brain
ground truth maps of the brain.
למפות אמיתיות של המוח.
and see the molecules within.
ולראות את המולוקולות.
at, in these artist renderings,
בדרך אמנותית,
like and how we might separate them.
ואיך ניתן להפריד אותן.
to do, first of all,
shown in brown here,
of the brain apart from each other,
את המולקולות של המוח זו מזו,
to have a little handle
polymer and dump it on the brain,
ותזרקו אותו על המוח,
to make the polymers inside.
להכניס את הפולימרים פנימה.
get the building blocks,
those long chains,
את השרשראות הארוכות הללו,
around biomolecules
to pull apart the molecules
למשוך ולהפריד בין המולקולות.
of those little handles is around,
and that's exactly what we need
וזה בדיוק מה שאנחנו צריכים
apart from each other.
all the molecules from each other,
to start absorbing the water,
will come along for the ride.
a picture on a balloon,
away from each other.
to do now, but in three dimensions.
אבל בתלת-מימד.
all the biomolecules brown.
kind of look the same.
out of the same atoms,
that will distinguish them.
might get a blue color.
might get a red color.
far apart enough from each other
we can make the invisible visible.
את הבלתי נראה לנראה.
small and obscure
of information about life.
of what it might look like.
right before your eyes --
is going to grow.
or even more in volume.
those polymers are so tiny,
שמשום שהפולימרים האלה כה זעירים,
evenly from each other.
באופן שווה.
of the information.
מעגלים חשמליים מוחיים אמיתיים --
actual brain circuitry --
involved with, for example, memory --
how circuits are configured.
at how circuits are configured
of our brain is organized
at a molecular level.
look into cells in the brain
על תאים בתוך המוח
molecules that have altered
הנה 17 המולקולות שעברו שינוי
undergoing epilepsy
of things that are going wrong,
של כל הדברים שמשתבשים,
at different parts of the brain
לחלקים שונים במוח,
with Parkinson's or epilepsy
עם פרקינסון או אפילפסיה,
over a billion people
המשפיעות על מעל מיליארד איש
has been happening.
that expansion might help with.
יכולה לסייע בפתרונן.
from a human breast cancer patient.
if you look at development --
אם מסתכלים על התפתחות --
large-scale biological systems.
מערכות ביולוגיות בקנה מידה גדול.
with those little nanoscale molecules,
ברמה של הננו-מולקולות,
and the organs in our body tick.
ולאיברים בגופנו לפעול.
to do now is to figure out
to map the building blocks of life
כדי למפות את אבני הבניין של החיים,
the molecular changes in a tumor
על השינויים המולקולריים החלים בגידול,
go after it in a smart way
exactly the cells that we want to?
בדיוק את התאים הרצויים?
is very high risk.
מסתמך על לקיחת סיכונים
what might be a high-risk moon shot
כמו שיגור חללית לירח,
feat of engineering.
necessarily have all the laws.
that are analogous to gravity,
המקבילים לכוח הכבידה?
עליהן אני מדבר היום,
that occur in living systems,
the diseases that plague us.
have two young kids,
is to make life better for them
חיים טובים יותר מאלה שיש לנו כיום.
turn biology and medicine
שאם נהפוך את הביולוגיה והרפואה
that are governed by chance and luck,
הנשלטים על-ידי מזל ומקריות,
that we win by skill and hard work,
כישורים ועבודה קשה,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ed Boyden - NeuroengineerEd Boyden is a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute.
Why you should listen
Ed Boyden leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain. His group applies these tools in a systematic way in order to reveal ground truth scientific understandings of biological systems, which in turn reveal radical new approaches for curing diseases and repairing disabilities. These technologies include expansion microscopy, which enables complex biological systems to be imaged with nanoscale precision, and optogenetic tools, which enable the activation and silencing of neural activity with light (TED Talk: A light switch for neurons). Boyden also co-directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, which aims to develop new tools to accelerate neuroscience progress.
Amongst other recognitions, Boyden has received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015), the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences (2015), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Grete Lundbeck Brain Prize (2013) and the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2013). He was also named to the World Economic Forum Young Scientist list (2013) and the Technology Review World's "Top 35 Innovators under Age 35" list (2006). His group has hosted hundreds of visitors to learn how to use new biotechnologies and spun out several companies to bring inventions out of his lab and into the world. Boyden received his Ph.D. in neurosciences from Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, where he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. Before that, he received three degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and physics from MIT. He has contributed to over 300 peer-reviewed papers, current or pending patents and articles, and he has given over 300 invited talks on his group's work.
Ed Boyden | Speaker | TED.com