Pardis Sabeti: How we'll fight the next deadly virus
Pardis Sabeti: Come combatteremo il prossimo virus mortale
Pardis Sabeti investigates the genomes of microbes, including the Ebola virus, to help understand how to slow them. Full bio
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of Kenema, Sierra Leone
Kenema, in Sierra Leone
extraordinary places on earth.
più straordinari sulla Terra.
of nurses, physicians and scientists
di infermiere, medici e scienziati
to humanity for years:
per l'umanità:
and can often be fatal.
spesso letale.
they risk their lives every day
rischiano la loro vita ogni giorno
in their communities,
delle loro comunità,
I learned about them
che ho imparato su di loro
out there many years ago
molti anni fa
on the front lines -- by singing.
in prima linea-- cantando.
and they show their joy.
and they've visited me,
scambiati delle visite,
just there to pursue science together;
solo per fare scoperte scientifiche,
becomes extremely important,
è estremamente importante,
quando le cose cambiano.
in March of 2014,
in Guinea.
was declared in Guinea.
dell'Africa occidentale,
of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
frightening for us all.
per tutti noi.
widespread than thought,
del previsto,
one day come to Kenema.
potesse arrivare lì.
immediately went out
sono partiti subito
and his team there,
del dottor Humarr Khan
to have sensitive molecular tests
capaci di fare saggi sensibili molecolari
across the border
of capacity for Lassa virus,
per il virus Lassa,
the tools and place to survey for Ebola.
e il posto per indagare l'Ebola.
into the maternity ward at the hospital,
nel reparto maternità dell'ospedale,
those important molecular tests
test molecolari
confirmed case of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
di Ebola in Sierra Leone.
work that was done.
the case immediately,
il caso subito
to follow what was going on.
per capire cosa stava accadendo.
been breeding for months.
eclipsed all previous outbreaks.
eclissato le epidemie precedenti.
not as that singular case,
un caso isolato,
with the international community,
la comunità internazionale,
to begin to deal with the cases,
per cominciare ad affrontare i casi,
ne portò 31,
all coming to Kenema,
that could deal with this.
che potesse affrontarlo.
trying to do everything we could,
cercando di fare quello che potevamo,
trying to get attention,
di ottenere attenzione,
from a patient's blood to detect Ebola,
di una paziente per rilevare l'Ebola,
put in a chemical and deactivate it,
in un agente chimico e disattivarlo
and ship it across the ocean,
e inviarlo oltreoceano,
dal mio team.
doing shift work, day after day,
giorno dopo giorno,
of the Ebola virus.
del virus Ebola.
of a virus is the blueprint.
il genoma di un virus è il modello.
are simple and they're powerful.
sono semplici e potenti.
these 99 different viruses,
99 virus diversi,
compared to three genomes
rispetto ai tre genomi
published from Guinea,
emerged in Guinea months before,
era emersa in Guinea mesi prima,
from human to human.
da uomo a uomo.
how to intervene,
come intervenire,
is contact tracing.
è la tracciatura.
was moving between humans,
mentre si trasmetteva,
are so important,
è importante,
sequence, fundamentally --
da quella sequenza genomica -
would need to respond,
dovevamo rispondere,
that they were doing.
stessero facendo.
the position I was in at that point
la posizione in cui ero
in a silo for many, many months,
per molti mesi,
e con calma,
gone through a few back-and-forths,
fare avanti e indietro,
might release that data.
divulgare i dati.
at this point, right?
that what we needed is help,
came off the machines,
and said, "Help us."
e dicemmo: "Aiutateci."
from people all over,
da tutto il mondo,
out there and released.
viral trackers in the world
al mondo
della nostra comunità.
in this virtual way,
tenendoci in contatto,
minute by minute,
that we can form communities like that.
di formare comunità simili.
started to expand globally,
iniziò a diffondersi globalmente,
to participate, to engage.
impegnarsi.
out there is just amazing,
è straordinaria,
of being frightened of each other,
di avere paura degli altri,
and let's make this happen."
e facciamolo succedere."
that all of us are using,
che stiamo usando,
to do what we need to do.
per fare quello che dobbiamo.
get missed when that happens.
of the epidemic from Kenema,
da Kenema,
from patients,
dei pazienti,
publicly available to the world.
that you could take those 106 records,
mostrare che potevate prendere questi dati
the prognosis for Ebola patients
per predire la prognosi dei pazienti
that could release that,
questi dati,
to health-care workers in the field.
agli addetti ai lavori.
to make it powerful,
per renderla potente,
to release that.
per divulgarla,
cannot accept that.
non potete accettarlo.
many health-care workers,
molti operatori,
Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi,
Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi,
and Mohamed Fullah.
e Mohamed Fullah.
of many health-care workers
and while we all worked,
e noi lavoravamo,
and distraction and division.
dalla distrazione e dalla divisione.
and we fight amongst ourselves,
e ci combattiamo,
we're actually all the same.
could soon be on ours.
with the same vulnerabilities,
the same fears, the same hopes,
paure e speranze,
was reading a book about Sierra Leone,
un libro sul Sierra Leone,
where we work in Sierra Leone,
in Sierra Leone,
for "clear like a river, translucent
"pulito come un fiume, luminoso
we'd always felt
abbiamo sempre sentito
in Kenema where we worked,
dove lavoravamo,
and we had to work together.
e lavorare insieme.
of ourselves and others --
noi stessi e gli altri
when an outbreak happens,
si sviluppa un'epidemia
outbreak of Ebola,
la prima epidemia di Ebola,
out there that are lying in wait,
là fuori in attesa,
it could start there.
potrebbe iniziare lì.
that's transmitted through the air.
disseminated intentionally.
I understand that,
and this experience shows us,
e questa esperienza ce lo dimostra,
and we have the capacity
the upper hand over viruses.
their lives on the front lines
le loro vite in prima linea
sempre.
of hearts and minds
di cuori e menti
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Pardis Sabeti - Computational geneticistPardis Sabeti investigates the genomes of microbes, including the Ebola virus, to help understand how to slow them.
Why you should listen
Pardis Sabeti develops algorithms to detect the genetic signatures of adaption in humans and the microbial organisms that infect humans. Among her lab’s key research areas: examining the genetic factors that drive disease susceptibility to Ebola and Lassa hemorrhagic fever, and investigating the genomes of microbes, including Lassa virus, Ebola virus, Plasmodium falciparum malaria, Vibrio cholera and Mycobacterioum tuberculosis, to help find cures.
She's based at the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard School of Public Health. Sabeti is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and was named a Time magazine Person of the Year in 2014 as one of the Ebola fighters.Pardis Sabeti | Speaker | TED.com