Carolyn Bertozzi: What the sugar coating on your cells is trying to tell you
凱洛琳柏托齊: 包裹在你細胞外面的糖試圖告訴你什麼資訊?
Professor Carolyn Bertozzi is a chemical biologist who invents technologies and medicines based on disease-causing sugar molecules. Full bio
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when I was in college.
professors taught us about
of your cells.
are coated with sugar.
被糖所包裹著。
call it the 1980s --
就說是 1980 年代吧──
our cells are coated with sugar.
我們的細胞會被糖所包裹。
what I noticed I had written down
我發現我記下的是:
is like the sugar coating
就像是花生 M&M 豆
the sugar coating on our cells
stronger or tougher.
更強壯或更堅韌。
are actually very complex.
to a little miniature airplane
the surface of your cells,
are these trees and bushes --
swaying in the wind
all these complex sugars
problems that I encountered
to think about the sugars
the surface of our cells
stored in their complex structures.
它們複雜的結構中。
some information
to be incredibly important
your sugars are telling us
我們的其中一項資訊
cells, are coated with sugars,
是被糖所包裹住的,
sugars determine your blood type.
決定了你的血型。
that I am blood type O.
either you're not paying attention
若不是你們沒認真聽,
兩種情況都不太好。
and both of those are bad.
the blood type O with me,
this chemical structure
to make a more complex sugar.
形成一個更複雜的糖。
an enzyme in your cells
than the A people,
different structure,
the other enzyme from your father,
in roughly equal proportions.
在比例上是大約各半。
medical procedures in the world,
最重要的醫療手術之一,
is the blood transfusion.
if you ever need a transfusion,
doesn't see foreign sugars,
有外來的糖進入,
and would certainly reject.
of your cells trying to tell us?
還能告訴我們什麼資訊?
that you have cancer.
告訴我們你得了癌症。
from the analysis of tumor tissue.
開始發現了相關性。
would have a tumor detected,
當一名患者被檢測出腫瘤,
in a biopsy procedure
to look for chemical changes
about the best course of treatment.
腫瘤學家斷定最適合的療程。
from studies like that
from being healthy to being sick.
again and again and again.
再而三地出現。
has been: Why?
What's the importance of that?
其重要性何在?
can we do about it if it does turn out
我們又能做什麼呢?
of a particular sugar
one of the most important sugars
to get familiar with this word.
the kind of sugar that we eat.
that is actually found
of the cells in your body.
progressive disease,
成功進展的情況下,
with your immune system.
about the importance of your immune system
免疫系統在癌症中的重要性。
也有不少相關報導。
in the news a lot these days.
to become familiar with the term
ways of treating cancer.
is that your immune cells,
coursing through your bloodstream,
流動的白血球細胞,
from things gone bad --
are your immune cells,
and taste all the cells in your body.
品嚐你體內的所有細胞。
a cell might taste bad.
可能嚐起來不太對。
get the bad taste,
and kill those cells.
potentiate that tasting,
賦與那種品嚐行為力量,
to actually take a big old bite
yourself from cancer every day
out there in the market
can be more vigorous
President Jimmy Carter's life.
had malignant melanoma
得了惡性黑色素瘤,
that is usually accompanied by numbers
of these new immune-stimulating drugs,
免疫系統刺激藥物的治療,
appears to be in remission,
only a few years ago.
people are saying,
免疫治療藥物如是說。
to say about a disease
up against a cancer cell to take a taste,
癌細胞,去品嚐它的味道時,
a missile strike and kills the cell.
發動飛彈攻擊,殺死癌細胞。
of that sugar, sialic acid,
也就是唾液酸,所組成的茂密樹林,
that grabs the sialic acid,
會抓住唾液酸,
gets held at that synapse
and the cancer cell,
the immune cell,
Nothing to see here, move along.
沒什麼好看的,走開。
a thick coat of sialic acid,
很厚一層的唾液酸,
for what it really is:
cell-surface lawnmowers --
細胞表面用的除草機,
to the surface of these cancer cells
can reach its full potential
cells from our body.
around that cell
to leave the good cells alone.
得要放過好的細胞。
cancers get the ability
the immune system,
to wake up those immune cells,
來喚醒那些免疫細胞,
the sugars, eat the cell
去吃那細胞,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Carolyn Bertozzi - Chemical biologistProfessor Carolyn Bertozzi is a chemical biologist who invents technologies and medicines based on disease-causing sugar molecules.
Why you should listen
Professor Carolyn Bertozzi's research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface sugars important to human health and disease. She was originally trained in organic chemistry and immunology, and today her research group works at the interface of these two disciplines They recently made discoveries that link particular sugars that coat the surfaces of cancer cells with the ability of those disease-causing cells to avoid elimination by the human immune system. Now her research group is developing medicines that attack cancer cell-surface sugars so as to render the immune system more potent at eliminating disease. Bertozzi also studies other human health problems including tuberculosis infections and rare genetic disorders, using tools from chemistry to power biomedical research.
Carolyn Bertozzi | Speaker | TED.com