Nina Fedoroff: A secret weapon against Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases
Nina Fedoroff: Eine Geheimwaffe gegen Zika und andere von Moskitos übertragene Krankheiten
Nina Fedoroff writes and lectures about the history and science of genetically modified organisms. Full bio
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it's a relatively mild disease --
ist es eine leichte Erkrankung --
joint pain, maybe a rash.
Gelenkschmerzen, vielleicht ein Ausschlag.
don't even know they've had it.
merken es gar nicht.
about the Zika virus
have noticed an uptick
syndrome in recent outbreaks.
das Guillain-Barré-Syndrom festgestellt.
attacks your nerve cells
das Immunsystem Nervenzellen an,
or even totally paralyze you.
Lähmungen führen kann.
and most people recover.
die meisten Menschen erholen sich.
when you're infected
with what's called microcephaly.
in northeastern Brazil
waren die Ersten,
after a Zika outbreak,
nach einem Zika-Ausbruch feststellten,
in the incidence of microcephaly.
das die Ursache das Zika-Virus ist;
by the Zika virus,
the evidence" type,
and how did it get here?
und wie ist es hierher gekommen?
it came out of Africa,
kommt es aus Afrika,
Yellow Fever Research Institute
Gelbfieberforschungsinstitut
in a monkey in the Zika forest
einen unbekannten Virus;
in Uganda-Tanzania.
in Uganda und Tansania auf.
Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia.
Pakistan, Indien, Malaysia, Indonesien.
and, of course, mosquitoes.
bei Affen und natürlich Moskitos auf.
it was first identified in 1947 and 2007
1947 entdeckt wurde und 2007
of human Zika fever.
bei Menschen gemeldet.
on the tiny Micronesian Yap islands.
auf den mikronesischen Yap-Inseln.
fully 75 percent of the population.
ganze 75 Prozent der Bevölkerung.
commercial airline passengers.
kommerzielle Flüge.
fly halfway around the world
um die halbe Welt fliegen,
if they develop symptoms at all.
wenn sie überhaupt Symptome entwickeln.
begin to bite them and spread the fever.
von Moskitos gestochen,
in 2013 in French Polynesia.
in Französisch-Polynesien auf.
transmitted locally by the mosquitoes.
von Moskitos vor Ort übertragen.
almost 30,000 people were affected.
fast 30.000 Menschen waren betroffen.
über den Pazifik hinweg aus.
Islands, in New Caledonia,
und in Neukaledonien,
of South America and Easter Island.
Südamerika und den Osterinseln.
of a dengue-like syndrome
eines Dengue-artigen Syndroms
in northeastern Brazil.
and it spread rapidly --
und es breitete sich rasend schnell aus.
center, soon became the epicenter.
wurde bald zum Epizentrum.
2014 World Cup soccer fans
WM-Fans im Jahr 2014 waren,
it was Pacific Islanders
von pazifischen Inseln,
that brought it in.
by mosquitoes
durch Moskitos übertragen,
Central America, Mexico
Mittelamerika, Mexiko
thousands of cases
die vielen Tausend Fälle,
were contracted elsewhere.
auf Infektionen im Ausland.
transmitted locally in Miami.
finden Infektionen in Miami statt.
or about eliminating the mosquitoes.
oder Moskitos auszurotten.
and apply insect repellent.
und Insektenspray verwenden.
because there isn't a vaccine yet
da es noch keinen Impfstoff gibt,
for a couple of years.
nicht so schnell ändern.
a foolproof protection either
keine idiotensichere Lösung,
it can be sexually transmitted.
insect repellent does work ...
Insektenspray auftragen funktioniert ...
and here's how we control them now:
und das tun wir gegen sie:
because these are toxic chemicals
da die Chemikalien toxisch sind
to kill a person than to kill a bug.
um einen Menschen zu töten,
Brazil and Nicaragua.
aus Brasilien und Nicaragua.
insecticides from planes.
von Flugzeugen aus versprühen.
in Dorchester County, South Carolina,
die Behörde für Moskitobekämpfung
an insecticide,
am Morgen, wie vom Hersteller empfohlen.
as recommended by the manufacturer.
eine Imkerin Reportern,
like it had been nuked.
als hätte eine Bombe eingeschlagen.
but spraying continued.
doch das Sprühen ging weiter.
in the number of Zika fever cases.
für den Anstieg der Zika-Fälle.
aren't very effective.
perhaps more effective than spraying
die effektiver als das Sprühen sind,
than toxic chemicals?
als toxische Chemikalien haben?
biologischer Schädlingsbekämpfung
author of "Silent Spring,"
Autorin von "Der Stumme Frühling",
the environmental movement.
die Umweltbewegung gestartet zu haben.
as an example,
pest of livestock
eines Nutztierschädlings
extraordinary story today.
when we were writing an editorial
diese Geschichte nach,
retold that story.
zum aktuellen Moskitoproblem schrieben.
that's the immature form of the insect --
sozusagen Babyinsekten --
grown to adulthood
dann weiter aufgezogen
all over the Southwest,
über dem Südwesten,
and into Central America
und Mittelamerika verteilt,
from little airplanes,
von kleinen Flugzeugen aus.
that terrible insect pest
ausgerottet werden konnten.
to how we can do that today --
wie wir das heute erlangen könnten --
but with our knowledge of genetics.
Wissen über Genetik.
die Ägyptische Tigermücke.
vector of diseases,
Krankheiten überträgt,
Chikungunya, West Nile virus
Chikungunya, das Westnilvirus
that does the dirty work.
to feed her offspring.
mit dem sie ihre Jungen füttert.
have the mouth parts to bite.
ihnen fehlen die Mundteile dazu.
genetically modified that mosquito
hat einen Moskito genetisch modifiziert,
its eggs don't develop to adulthood.
wenn er sich in der Natur paart,
when the male mates with the wild female
dass sich Eier nicht entwickeln,
just diagrammatically how they do it.
wie es funktioniert.
of a mosquito cell,
einer Moskitozelle,
represents its genome,
für sein Genom,
by this orange ball
das hier als oranger Ball dargestellt ist,
to keep cranking out more of that protein.
noch mehr Protein produziert.
go and gum up the mosquitoes' genes,
die Gene des Moskitos
they use a compound called tetracycline.
nutzt man das Präparat Tetracyclin.
and allows normal development.
und erlaubt so eine normale Entwicklung.
so that they could study what happens.
um zu sehen, was passiert.
that makes the insect glow under UV light
wodurch Insekten unter UV-Licht leuchten,
they could follow exactly how far it went
wissen, wie weit die Insekten kommen,
and all of the kinds of data
und sämtliche Daten bekommen,
and at this stage
und in diesem Stadium
into the males and the females
und Weibchen trennen
to grow to adulthood.
weiterwachsen lassen.
that males don't bite.
and drive around the city,
fahren sie durch die Stadt
der die erste Ladung von dem freilässt,
releasing the first batch
this is an American city, but it's not.
das sei eine amerikanische Stadt.
in einem Jahr um 91 % senken konnten.
of dengue by 91 percent.
spraying can do.
biological control in the US?
nicht in den USA genutzt?
a genetically modified organism.
ein genetisch veränderter Organismus.
if the FDA would let them
man könnte hier das gleiche machen,
und die Umweltbehörde grünes Licht gibt.
when Zika arrives.
of GM regulation in the US
der GV-Verordnung in den USA erzählen.
regulate genetically modified organisms:
um genetische veränderte Organismen:
Arzneimittelsicherheit FDA
Protection Agency,
of Agriculture.
das Landwirtschaftsministerium.
to decide that it would be the FDA
bis klar war, dass die FDA
modified mosquito.
zuständig sein würde.
if that makes any sense.
wenn man so will.
and forth and back and forth
that this would not harm people,
dass kein Schaden für Menschen
permission to run a little test
when they Keys had an outbreak of dengue.
als es dort einen Dengue-Ausbruch gab.
mosquitoes tested in their community
in ihrer Gemeinde getestet werden sollten,
Proteste zu organisieren.
the internet with this cuddly logo,
mit diesem süßen Logo,
some 160,000 signatures
gesammelt wurden.
in just a couple of weeks
would be permitted at all.
überhaupt erlaubt werden sollen.
these better ways of controlling insects.
eine bessere Schädlingsbekämpfung.
of more than 60 legislators
von über 60 Entscheidungsträgern
die Gesundheitsministerin,
expedite access for Florida
den Zugang Floridas
zu beschleunigen.
very much more environmentally friendly
umweltfreundlicher sein,
which are toxic chemicals.
die toxische Chemikalien sind.
time; it's true today.
und es gilt auch heute noch.
enormously more information
viel mehr über Genetik wissen als damals,
to use that information
einbringen können.
is aroused your curiosity enough
genug Neugier wecken konnte,
not into just GM mosquitoes
nicht nur über GV-Moskitos,
organisms that are so controversial today.
über die gerade so gestritten wird.
through all of the misinformation,
und sich durch die Fehlinformationen
der Bio-Lebensmittelindustrie
and the Greenpeaces
the accurate science,
die akkurate Wissenschaft finden,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nina Fedoroff - Molecular biologistNina Fedoroff writes and lectures about the history and science of genetically modified organisms.
Why you should listen
Nina Fedoroff serves as science adviser to several organizations, including OFW Law and the Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI) in Washington, DC and the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe, NM. With former Secretary of Agriculture Jack Block, she recently published a New York Times editorial titled "Mosquito vs. Mosquito in the Battle Over the Zika Virus."
Fedoroff was trained as a molecular biologist and geneticist at the Rockefeller University in New York City. The university awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2008 as one of its most distinguished alumni on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
Fedoroff's early scientific accomplishments include analyzing a curious enzyme that replicates the RNA genome of a tiny RNA virus and sequencing of one the first genes ever to be sequenced. On the strength of this work, she was appointed a member of the scientific staff of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Embryology. Her most important contributions began when she met the legendary biologist Barbara McClintock in 1978. She was intrigued by McClintock’s pioneering work on transposable elements, commonly known as "jumping genes," in corn plants.
McClintock's work was purely genetic, hence Fedoroff set out to study her jumping genes at the molecular level. That meant figuring out how to clone plant genes, none of which had yet been cloned. In fact, people had begun to wonder whether plant genes could be cloned at all. Solving the technical problems, Fedoroff and her students unraveled the molecular details of how these mobile DNA sequences move and how the plants exert epigenetic control of their movement. This work led to her election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990. Her capstone book on transposable elements entitled Plant Transposons and Genome Dynamics in Evolution ,was published in 2013.
Fedoroff moved the Penn State University in 1995 as the Director of the Biotechnology Institute and Vern M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences. Here she organized a multidisciplinary graduate and research program now known as the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences. Her laboratory research shifted to understanding how plants respond to stress and how they process small regulatory RNAs from larger precursors. She also began to dance Argentine tango. And she wrote a book with science writer Nancy Marie Brown titled Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist’s View of Genetically Modified Foods.
The year 2007 was marked by two extraordinary events in Fedoroff's life. She was named a National Medal of Science laureate for 2006 and she was appointed as the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State by then-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The science advisory position gave her an unexpected bully pulpit to talk about the importance of science in diplomacy, about which she was interviewed by Claudia Dreifus of the New York Times. It also gave her many opportunities to talk about genetic modification and GMOs all over the world. Realizing that development efforts would benefit from increased involvement of scientists, she organized the GKI, an NGO that builds collaborative networks around problems requiring scientific and technological input.
Completing her advisory work at the State Department in 2010, Fedoroff was recruited to the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as a Distinguished Professor of the Life Sciences. At KAUST, Fedoroff organized a Center for Desert Agriculture, seeking to address the difficulties facing agriculture in increasingly populous dryland areas.
Today Fedoroff continues write and lecture internationally, most recently keynoting the 2017 Mantua Food and Science Festival in Mantua, Italy. She continues to dance tango, traveling to Buenos Aires each of the past couple of years.
Nina Fedoroff | Speaker | TED.com