Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi: To detect diseases earlier, let's speak bacteria's secret language
法提麦·阿扎拉·阿特拉齐: 为了更早地发现疾病,让我们来谈谈细菌的秘密语言
Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a method to spy on the social behavior and communication of bacteria. Full bio
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just like humans.
to bacterial conversations
我们可以听懂细菌的对话,
翻译成人类语言呢?
information into human language?
bacterial conversations can save lives?
翻译细菌语言可以挽救生命呢?
开发了一个实时翻译工具,
to develop a real-time translation tool
of what bacteria are up to.
in this theater are bacterial.
有90%的活细胞是细菌。
或生产抗生素。
or produce antibiotics.
the functions bacteria have,
to communicate with each other.
alone in the desert.
the signaling molecules accumulate,
信号分子聚集起来,
that they're not alone.
of how many they are
to initiate a new action.
have reached a certain threshold,
that they need to act
of an initiative and a reaction,
自发行动和被动反应,
and the response to it.
on bacterial communities
communication molecules present,
will give us information
when bacteria communicate?
would have a primitive language,
表达单词和句子能力的婴儿。
words and sentences yet.
when they cry, they're sad.
当它们哭,就是难过。
as primitive as I thought they would be.
细菌可不像我想象的那样原始。
它们可以有不同的含义,
depending on the context,
can mean different things:
可以表示不同的事情:
the signaling molecules
depending on the context.
will adopt this soon.
它们可能有点难以理解,
that can be a bit tricky to understand
that has infected a patient.
they reproduce, and they grow.
as long as they're working together.
with Juliet from Capulet.
和凯普莱特家的朱丽叶在一起了。
can be dangerous to the Montagues
对蒙太古家是一个威胁,
这个感染病人的计划,
family in the patient they have infected,
resistance to antibiotics.
to get rid of this other family
想要通过释放这个分子
that will kill the other family.
by calling for a counterattack.
dueling with swordlike organelles,
与剑状细胞器搏斗的视频,
and rupturing each other.
becomes the dominant bacteria.
就将成为占统治地位的细菌。
bacterial conversations
collective behaviors
on bacterial communities
for one particular infection,
一种特定感染的测试。
of the traditional diagnostic test.
and I compared the tool results
验证测试进行比较时,
and the validation test,
than I had ever anticipated.
what the tool revealed,
我跟踪的病人的具体情况,
a specific patient I followed,
导致她的肺部疾病易受细菌感染。
susceptible to bacterial infections.
of the clinical trial.
我从她的医疗记录中
from her medical record
an infection before.
went to the hospital
that she spit in a cup.
for bacterial analysis
发现感染时迅速采取行动。
if they discovered an infection.
on her samples as well.
用她的样本测试我的设备。
on her samples, there was nothing.
什么都没发现。
一些细菌在说个不停。
chatter in her sample.
to damage her lung tissue.
showed no bacteria at all.
变得更加激烈。
conversations became even more aggressive.
diagnostics showed nothing.
还没有显示出任何结果。
I followed up on her status
我对她的病情进行了追踪,
only I knew about had disappeared
是否已经消失了。
with a severe infection
my tool discovered earlier.
早些时候发现的细菌。
antibiotic treatment,
to eradicate the infection.
survive her 20s.
if my method worked at all,
with the doctors
their treatment.
that weren't even validated,
甚至没有得到证实时,
without an actual infection
consequences for the patient.
and girls that still can be saved
this scenario happens very often.
on the traditional diagnostic test,
病人身上爆发了。
in the patient with severe symptoms.
of the 62 patients I followed
令人惊讶的结果是,
caught bacterial conversations
都被诊断为阴性。
by traditional methods.
of these patients went home thinking
有一半以上回家时
dangerous bacteria.
a synchronized attack.
methods cannot diagnose.
that can catch those whispers.
才能捕捉到这些窃窃私语。
in which bacteria are still whispering
for targeted treatment.
during this window of opportunity,
to kill the bacteria
made me decide to do everything I can
让我决定要尽我所能
on implementing this tool in clinics
how doctors should treat patients
密切关注处于危险中的病人。
keep a closer eye on patients in risk.
if a treatment had worked or not,
information to each other.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi - Nanophysicist, entrepreneurFatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a method to spy on the social behavior and communication of bacteria.
Why you should listen
Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi holds a PhD in nanotechnology and molecular biology, is a renowned fiction writer and the founder of PreDiagnose, where she's created next-generation diagnostics for early bacterial detection. She's an expert in developing micro- and nanosensors for the detection of cellular molecules and microorganisms.
As a result of her research and academic track, Alatraktchi has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Lundbeck Foundation Talent Prize for outstanding research talents in medicine and health and the PhD thesis of the year award by the Technical University of Denmark. She founded PreDiagnose to transform her research into concrete benefit for users. Forbes listed her as one of the 30 most influential people under 30 in Europe within science and health in 2019.
Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi | Speaker | TED.com