Michel Dugon: The secrets of spider venom
Michel Dugon: Os segredos do veneno de aranha
Michel Dugon researches the potential of spider venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
that are very happy to be up there now.
de estar lá agora.
is the incarnation of terror, really.
é a encarnação do terror.
e grande demais para inspirar confiança.
fantástico da bioengenharia.
feat of bioengineering.
to all those creatures
para todas aquelas criaturas
since the beginning of time;
desde o começo dos tempos;
that have managed to have offspring
que conseguiram ter crias
until this day.
started to evolve on this planet.
começaram a evoluir neste planeta.
to become what they are now:
as aranhas se tornassem o que são hoje:
to give a speech
I have to say.
to all those ruthless battles
das batalhas impiedosas
consistently by all our ancestors,
por nossos ancestrais,
every single one of you,
one-billion-years-old success story.
de 1 bilhão de anos ininterruptos.
to what she has in her chest,
ao que ela tem no peito,
that are attached to a pair of fangs,
anexadas a um par de caninos,
and without this venom,
managed to survive.
venom systems in order to survive.
sistemas de veneno para sobreviver.
de aranha, de escorpião,
of chemical compounds.
de compostos químicos.
have evolved purely for one purpose:
puramente para um propósito:
in many different ways.
pains that you've never felt before.
sentir dores que nunca sentimos antes.
your heart stop within minutes,
nosso coração parar em minutos,
almost instantly,
nos paralisar instantaneamente,
your flesh away, like acid.
gruesome stories, I know,
são horripilantes, eu sei,
all those super powerful compounds
todos os compostos superpoderosos
produce new antibiotics with those venoms?
novos antibióticos com esses venenos?
that are suffering from diabetes
que sofrem de diabetes
are already being developed
já estão sendo desenvolvidas
everywhere around the world, as I speak.
regularly with a medication
com medicamento
by a South American viper.
can be monitored using, actually,
podem ser monitorados usando
by a lizard from North America.
da América do Norte.
um novo protocolo está sendo desenvolvido
a marine snail for anesthetics.
de um caracol marinho como anestésico.
library of chemical compounds
enorme de compostos químicos
of thousands of live creatures.
de milhares de criaturas vivas.
to go for a little walk.
thought to produce
kinds of compounds
diferentes de compostos
actually have managed to study so far?
já conseguiram estudar?
99.99 percent of all those compounds
99.99% de compostos
to be harvested and tested,
para ser colhidos e testados,
have concentrated their efforts
têm concentrado esforços
very dangerous animals --
and black widows.
e viúvas negras.
that we actually have all around us?
que estão à nossa volta?
that lives behind your couch?
que mora atrás do seu sofá?
to just shoot through the floor
e nos fazem morrer de susto?
some kind of amazing compound
de composto incrível
would have been, "We have no clue."
meses, não fazíamos ideia.
have started to look into it,
começamos a examiná-las,
actually are producing
compostos muito interessantes.
more about that in a second,
about this "we are looking into it."
sobre isso de "examiná-las".
have to capture a lot of spiders.
capturamos muitas aranhas.
one finds a lot of spiders.
encontramos muitas aranhas.
ao nosso redor.
two, three, four hundred spiders,
talvez, 200, 300, 400 aranhas,
in its own individual home.
um Airbnb de aranhas no trabalho".
I would advise you to start.
que eu recomendaria a vocês.
we wait a few days,
aguardamos uns dias,
little electric current through their body
uma corrente elétrica pelo corpo delas
venenosas delas.
a tiny little droplet of venom appearing.
uma gota minúscula de veneno aparecer.
glass tube, a capillary,
do tamanho de um cabelo, um capilar,
and we put it back into its home,
de volta na sua casa,
unharmed during the process,
ilesas do processo,
of venom again and they've recovered,
de novo e estão recuperadas,
of one raindrop of venom.
a uma gota de chuva de veneno.
preciosa para nós.
chemical compound that is in that venom.
composto químico do veneno.
of a millionth of a liter of compound,
de litro de composto,
several thousand times
por várias milhares de vezes
a whole range of nasty stuff,
um tanto de coisas horrendas,
part of my job starts,
do meu trabalho começa,
de apostas científico.
those compounds ready,
aprontar os compostos,
that has absolutely amazing effects.
com efeitos absolutamente incríveis.
else from my pocket --
I have, actually, a very common spider.
eu tenho uma aranha bem comum.
that you could find in your shed,
que encontrariam no seu galpão,
no seu cano de esgoto,
antimicrobial compounds.
incrivelmente poderosos.
those drug-resistant bacteria
bactérias resistentes a drogas
in your sewer pipe,
no seu encanamento,
to a very, very serious concern we have.
a um problema muito sério.
every single day,
antimicrobial-resistant infections.
por infecções antimicrobianas resistentes.
of 700,000 people dead every single year
de 700 mil pessoas mortas todos os anos
30, 20 or 10 years ago
há 30, 20 ou 10 anos
very common bugs.
bactérias comuns.
is running out of antibiotics,
está ficando sem antibióticos,
does not have any answer,
não tem respostas,
to address that concern.
new kinds of antibiotics
tipos novos de antibióticos
every couple of years.
hit the market in the past five years?
nos últimos cinco anos?
that if we continue this way,
from being completely helpless
de estarmos completamente sem solução
of penicillin 90 years ago.
da penicilina, há 90 anos.
is that we are at war
contra um inimigo invisível
a lot quicker than we do.
muito mais rápido que nós.
one of our greatest secret weapons.
das nossas armas secretas mais poderosas.
of a liter of a venom,
a maioria das bactérias
to any other kind of antibiotics.
this experiment, I just wonder:
este experimento, eu imagino:
do the siblings actually have?
os irmãos dela têm?
can we really find, if we care to look?
podemos encontrar se formos à procura?
really the future of therapeutic drugs?"
o futuro das drogas terapêuticas?"
that they do hold some key answers."
que eles têm algumas respostas-chave".
the means to investigate them.
in the corner of your room ...
no canto do seu quarto...
an absolutely fantastic creature,
absolutamente fantástica,
one day, will hold the answer,
algum dia, tenha a resposta,
to your very own survival.
anymore now, is she?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michel Dugon - Zoologist, venom researcherMichel Dugon researches the potential of spider venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents.
Why you should listen
Michel Dugon runs the Venom Systems and Proteomics Lab and teaches zoology at the National University of Ireland Galway. His research focuses on the evolution of venom systems and on the potential of arthropod venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents. After a six-year stint chasing venomous creatures in the jungles of South East Asia, Dugon published extensively on the evolution of venom systems while pursuing a PhD in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. He was awarded the 2015 Irish National Teaching Award in Higher Education and the 2017 Ryan Award for Innovation. Dugon is currently working on developing the VIDAA network (Venom Investigations for the Development of Antimicrobial Agents) in collaboration with Irish, French and Belgian researchers.
As the founder and director of the science outreach Eco Explorers, Dugon dedicates a sizable amount of his time to promoting ecological awareness in the media and in schools throughout Ireland. Dr Dugon's work has been featured on national and international networks, including RTE, the BBC, Euronews and SKY.
Michel Dugon | Speaker | TED.com