Alexander Belcredi: How a long-forgotten virus could help us solve the antibiotics crisis
亚历山大 · 贝尔克雷迪: 一种被遗忘已久的病毒将如何帮我们解决抗生素危机
Alexander Belcredi studies how viruses can help in the fight against superbugs. Full bio
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devastating disease.
they can cure disease.
相反——它们能治愈疾病,
about phages was back in 2013.
病毒要追溯到2013年,
he was treating.
女性患者的治疗情况。
required multiple surgeries,
需要进行多次手术,
细菌感染的症状。
bacterial infection in her leg.
also did not respond
唯一的选择就是截肢,
option left is to amputate the leg
from spreading further.
for a different kind of solution,
唯一可能有效的噬菌体方案,
last-resort treatment using phages.
慢性感染就得到了治愈,
the chronic infection had healed up,
by the medical potential of phages.
噬菌体的医疗潜能所着迷。
在这个领域创立了一家公司。
to build a company in this space.
by an electron microscope.
是用电子显微镜拍的,
is in reality extremely tiny.
屏幕上看到的东西极其微小。
with the head, the long body
that you have more than 10 billion phages
at infecting bacteria.
so much of our body,
hunting ground for phages.
are extremely selective hunters.
即噬菌体都是挑剔的猎手;
a single bacterial species.
只会感染一种细菌。
the phage that you see
金黄色葡萄球菌的细菌,
called Staphylococcus aureus,
in its drug-resistant form.
灵敏的感受器官,
sensitive receptors,
on a bacterial cell.
to the bacterial cell wall
注射进入细菌体内。
through the long body.
reprograms the bacteria
becomes a phage factory.
约50-100个噬菌体后,
within the bacteria cell,
to release a protein
the phages move out
for a new bacteria to infect.
又像一种可怕的病毒了。
sounded like a scary virus again.
and then kill them --
这让噬菌体显得很有趣。
from a medical point of view.
extremely interesting
I really had no clue about phages.
它们是自然法则的一部分。
they are part of a natural principle.
to the earliest days of evolution.
并且彼此相互制约;
keeping each other in check.
and yang, of the hunter and the prey,
猎人与猎物的关系别无二致,
数量最多的生命体。
abundant organism on our planet.
talking about their medical potential,
它们的医疗潜能之前,
和它们在地球上扮演的角色:
about phages and their role on earth:
that works so well in nature,
如此运作完美的生物,
去对抗细菌感染的药物呢?
to combat bacterial infections?
has developed this kind of a drug yet,
还没人发明这种药,
to the Western regulatory standards
for so much of the world.
标准的西方监管准则,
就要往前追溯一下。
we need to move back in time.
credited with discovering phages.
back in 1917, he had no clue
called bacillary dysentery,
菌痢的疾病很感兴趣,
that causes severe diarrhea,
引发的严重腹泻疾病,
killing a lot of people,
药物还没有问世。
infections had been invented.
幸存者身上提取的样本,
who had survived this illness.
weird was going on.
was killing the bacteria
he did an ingenious experiment.
一个非常巧妙的实验。
只保留了极微小的生物,
very small could have remained,
to freshly cultivated bacteria.
滴入刚培养好的细菌中。
that within a number of hours,
几个小时之内,
again filtering, taking a tiny drop,
再次过滤、从中取一小滴,
of fresh bacteria.
he made two conclusions.
yes, something was killing the bacteria,
没错,有样东西正在杀死细菌,
它本质上一定是生物,
biologic in nature,
to have a huge impact.
产生如此大的影响。
an "invisible microbe"
叫做“看不见的微生物”,
means "bacteria eater."
of the most fundamental discoveries
最基础性的发现之一,
对噬菌体运作机制的理解——
to our understanding of how phages work --
but also in other fields.
在其他领域也是如此。
in chemistry was announced
并开发基于噬菌体药物的科学家
and develop drugs based on that.
二十年代和三十年代,
噬菌体的医学潜能。
the medical potential of phages.
that reliably was killing bacteria.
杀死细菌的可靠物质。
such as Abbott, Squibb or Lilly,
这些今天依然存在的公司,
不可见的微生物做基础,
with an invisible microbe,
to a reliable drug.
that invisible virus
这种不可见的病毒,
化学抗生素问世的时候,
emerged in the 1940s,
to the development
very differently than phages.
作用原理截然不同。
the growth of the bacteria,
抗生素会抑制细菌生长,
which kind of bacteria are present.
a whole bunch of bacteria out there.
作用面则很有限,
which work extremely narrowly
like a dream come true.
让人们觉得梦想成真。
with a suspected bacterial infection,
anything else about the bacteria
more and more antibiotics,
越来越多的抗生素,
therapy for bacterial infections.
治疗细菌感染的首选。
寿命的延长做出了巨大贡献。
tremendously to our life expectancy.
complex medical interventions
复杂的医疗干预
dying the very next day
可能因为手术中细菌感染
contract during the operation.
especially in Western medicine.
存在,尤其是在西药中。
I was growing up, the notion was:
成长过程中,大家的观念都是:
因为我们有了抗生素。
we have antibiotics.
we know that this is wrong.
这种观念是大错特错的。
will have heard about superbugs.
that have become resistant
that we have developed
治疗细菌感染的抗生素
as we thought we were.
像我们想的那样聪明。
antibiotics everywhere --
都使用抗生素——
at home, for simple colds;
在家里对付小感冒;
that were all around them,
that were best able to adapt.
"multidrug-resistant bacteria."
政府委托的研究中,
by the UK government,
from multidrug-resistant infections.
死于多药耐药性细菌感染。
from cancer per year today,
that this is a scary number.
phages have stuck around.
应用离我们不远了。
impressed by multidrug resistance.
它们可不在乎多药耐药性。
and hunting bacteria all around us.
在今天看来依然是一件好事。
which today is really a good thing.
a bacterial pathogen
感染的细菌病原体,
in many settings.
avoid some of the side effects
with broad-spectrum antibiotics.
they are no longer an invisible microbe.
噬菌体不再是不可见微生物。
phage-based pharmaceuticals.
基于噬菌体的药物新时代,
around the globe.
超过10家生物科技公司
including our own company,
以治疗细菌性感染,
to treat bacterial infections.
are getting underway in Europe and the US.
正在欧洲和美国进行。
that we're standing on the verge
the phage is something like this.
正确方式应该像这样。
that we have been waiting for
细菌感染的战斗中,
multidrug-resistant infections.
期待的超级英雄。
one day save your life.
会在某一天挽救你的生命。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Alexander Belcredi - Biotech entrepreneurAlexander Belcredi studies how viruses can help in the fight against superbugs.
Why you should listen
Alexander Belcredi has been working in the pharmaceutical space for over a decade. He spent nine years at BCG where he was part of the global health care team, focusing on pharma and medtech. While at BCG, Belcredi became acutely aware of the urgent need to develop alternatives to antibiotics and was fascinated by the role that phage therapy can play. In 2017, he co-founded PhagoMed Biopharma GmbH, a biotech company developing phage-based pharmaceuticals to treat bacterial infections, where he is now the CEO. Belcredi holds an MA in Modern History and Economics from the University of St. Andrews as well as an MBA from INSEAD.
Alexander Belcredi | Speaker | TED.com