ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lee Cronin - Chemist
A professor of chemistry, nanoscience and chemical complexity, Lee Cronin and his research group investigate how chemistry can revolutionize modern technology and even create life.

Why you should listen

Lee Cronin's lab at the University of Glasgow does cutting-edge research into how complex chemical systems, created from non-biological building blocks, can have real-world applications with wide impact. At TEDGlobal 2012, Cronin shared some of the lab's latest work: creating a 3D printer for molecules. This device -- which has been prototyped -- can download plans for molecules and print them, in the same way that a 3D printer creates objects. In the future, Cronin says this technology could potentially be used to print medicine -- cheaply and wherever it is needed. As Cronin says: "What Apple did for music, I'd like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs."

At TEDGlobal 2011, Cronin shared his lab's bold plan to create life. At the moment, bacteria is the minimum unit of life -- the smallest chemical unit that can undergo evolution. But in Cronin's emerging field, he's thinking about forms of life that won't be biological. To explore this, and to try to understand how life itself originated from chemicals, Cronin and others are attempting to create truly artificial life from completely non-biological chemistries that mimic the behavior of natural cells. They call these chemical cells, or Chells. 

Cronin's research interests also encompass self-assembly and self-growing structures -- the better to assemble life at nanoscale. At the University of Glasgow, this work on crystal structures is producing a raft of papers from his research group. He says: "Basically one of my longstanding research goals is to understand how life emerged on planet Earth and re-create the process."

Read the papers referenced in his TEDGlobal 2102 talk:

Integrated 3D-printed reactionware for chemical synthesis and analysis, Nature Chemistry

Configurable 3D-Printed millifluidic and microfluidic ‘lab on a chip’ reactionware devices, Lab on a Chip

More profile about the speaker
Lee Cronin | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2012

Lee Cronin: Print your own medicine

Lee Cronin : Imprimez vos propres médicaments

Filmed:
1,045,687 views

Le chimiste Lee Cronin travaille sur une imprimante 3D qui imprime des molécules plutôt que des objets. Une passionnante application potentiellement à long terme : imprimer vos propres médicaments en utilisant de l'encre chimique.
- Chemist
A professor of chemistry, nanoscience and chemical complexity, Lee Cronin and his research group investigate how chemistry can revolutionize modern technology and even create life. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
OrganicOrganique chemistschimistes make moleculesmolécules,
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Les chimistes organiques fabriquent des molécules,
00:19
very complicatedcompliqué moleculesmolécules,
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des molécules très compliquées,
00:21
by choppinghacher up a biggros moleculemolécule into smallpetit moleculesmolécules
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en découpant une grosse molécule
en petites molécules
00:24
and reversesens inverse engineeringingénierie.
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et grâce à la rétro-ingénierie.
00:26
And as a chemistchimiste,
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En tant que chimiste,
00:27
one of the things I wanted to askdemander my researchrecherche groupgroupe a couplecouple of yearsannées agodepuis is,
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une des choses que j'ai voulu demander
à mon groupe de recherche il y a deux ans est,
00:31
could we make a really coolcool universaluniversel chemistrychimie setensemble?
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peut-on vraiment fabriquer
un set de chimie vraiment sympa ?
00:35
In essenceessence, could we "appapplication" chemistrychimie?
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C’est-à-dire peut-on mettre la chimie dans une « app » ?
00:40
Now what would this mean, and how would we do it?
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Qu'est-ce que ça signifie, et comment peut-on le faire ?
00:43
Well to startdébut to do this,
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Pour commencer,
00:45
we tooka pris a 3D printerimprimante
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nous avons pris une imprimante 3D
00:47
and we startedcommencé to printimpression our beakersbéchers and our testtester tubestubes on one sidecôté
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et nous avons commencé à imprimer
les béchers et les éprouvettes d'un côté
00:51
and then printimpression the moleculemolécule at the sameMême time on the other sidecôté
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puis nous avons imprimer la molécule
en même temps de l'autre côté
00:55
and combinecombiner them togetherensemble in what we call reactionwarereactionware.
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et nous les avons combinés
dans ce que nous appelons un produit de réaction.
00:58
And so by printingimpression the vesselnavire and doing the chemistrychimie at the sameMême time,
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Ainsi, en imprimant le récipient
et la chimie en même temps,
01:03
we maymai startdébut to accessaccès this universaluniversel toolkitboîte à outils of chemistrychimie.
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nous pouvons accéder à ce kit de chimie universel.
01:08
Now what could this mean?
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Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire ?
01:09
Well if we can embedintégrer biologicalbiologique and chemicalchimique networksréseaux like a searchchercher enginemoteur,
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Si nous pouvons incorporer des réseaux chimiques
et biologiques dans un moteur de recherche,
01:15
so if you have a cellcellule that's illmauvais that you need to cureguérir
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si nous avons une cellule malade à guérir
01:18
or bacteriades bactéries that you want to killtuer,
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ou une bactérie à tuer,
01:20
if you have this embeddedintégré in your devicedispositif
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si vous avez ça incorporé dans votre dispositif
01:22
at the sameMême time, and you do the chemistrychimie,
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en même temps, et vous faites la chimie,
01:24
you maymai be ablecapable to make drugsdrogues in a newNouveau way.
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vous pourriez être en mesure de fabriquer
des médicaments de manière différente,
01:28
So how are we doing this in the lablaboratoire?
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Comment faire ça en laboratoire ?
01:30
Well it requiresa besoin softwareLogiciel, it requiresa besoin hardwareMatériel
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Il faut un logiciel, du matériel informatique
01:33
and it requiresa besoin chemicalchimique inksencres.
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et de l'encre chimique.
01:36
And so the really coolcool bitbit is,
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Et la partie la plus cool c'est
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the ideaidée is that we want to have a universaluniversel setensemble of inksencres
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l'idée d'avoir une série d'encres universelles
01:40
that we put out with the printerimprimante,
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que nous livrons avec l'imprimante,
01:43
and you downloadTélécharger the blueprintplan d’action, the organicbiologique chemistrychimie for that moleculemolécule
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et vous téléchargez le projet,
la chimie organique de cette molécule
01:47
and you make it in the devicedispositif.
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et vous la fabriquez dans l'appareil.
01:50
And so you can make your moleculemolécule in the printerimprimante usingen utilisant this softwareLogiciel.
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Et vous pouvez donc imprimer la molécule
en utilisant ce logiciel.
01:55
So what could this mean?
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Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire ?
01:58
Well, ultimatelyen fin de compte, it could mean that you could printimpression your ownposséder medicinemédicament.
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Finalement, ça signifie que vous pouvez imprimer
vos propres médicaments.
02:03
And this is what we're doing in the lablaboratoire at the momentmoment.
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Et c'est ce que nous faisons au labo en ce moment,
02:05
But to take babybébé stepspas to get there,
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Mais à petits pas pour y arriver,
02:06
first of all we want to look at drugdrogue designconception and productionproduction,
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avant tout nous voulons analyser
la création et la production des médicaments,
02:09
or drugdrogue discoveryDécouverte and manufacturingfabrication.
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ou la découverte et la fabrication de médicaments.
02:12
Because if we can manufacturefabrication it after we'venous avons discovereddécouvert it,
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Parce que si nous pouvons les fabriquer
après les avoir découverts,
02:15
we could deploydéployer it anywherenulle part.
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nous pouvons l'utiliser n'importe où.
02:17
You don't need to go to the chemistchimiste anymoreplus.
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Plus besoin d'aller à la pharmacie.
02:19
We can printimpression drugsdrogues at pointpoint of need.
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On peut imprimer des médicaments
quand on en a besoin.
02:22
We can downloadTélécharger newNouveau diagnosticsdiagnostics.
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On peut télécharger de nouveaux diagnostiques.
02:24
Say a newNouveau supersuper bugpunaise has emergedémergé.
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Disons qu'une nouvelle super bactérie apparait.
02:26
You put it in your searchchercher enginemoteur,
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Vous la mettez dans le moteur de recherche,
02:28
and you createcréer the drugdrogue to treattraiter the threatmenace.
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et vous fabriquer le médicament pour traiter la menace.
02:31
So this allowspermet you on-the-flyon-the-fly molecularmoléculaire assemblyAssemblée.
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Ça vous permet d'assembler des molécules à la volée.
02:35
But perhapspeut être for me the corecoeur bitbit going into the futureavenir
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Mais à mon avis, ce qui est plus projeté vers l'avenir,
02:38
is this ideaidée of takingprise your ownposséder stemtige cellscellules,
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c'est l'idée de prendre nos propres cellules,
02:41
with your genesgènes and your environmentenvironnement,
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avec nos gènes et notre environnement,
02:43
and you printimpression your ownposséder personalpersonnel medicinemédicament.
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et d'imprimer vos propres médicaments sur mesure.
02:46
And if that doesn't seemsembler fancifulfantaisistes enoughassez,
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Et si ça ne vous parait pas assez irréaliste,
02:48
where do you think we're going to go?
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dans quelle direction croyez-vous que nous allons ?
02:50
Well, you're going to have your ownposséder personalpersonnel mattermatière fabricatormanufacturier.
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Eh bien, vous aurez votre générateur de matière personnel.
02:55
BeamFaisceau me up, ScottyScotty.
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« Scotty ! Téléportation ! »
02:57
(ApplauseApplaudissements)
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(Applaudissements)
Translated by Anna Cristiana Minoli
Reviewed by Elisabeth Buffard

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lee Cronin - Chemist
A professor of chemistry, nanoscience and chemical complexity, Lee Cronin and his research group investigate how chemistry can revolutionize modern technology and even create life.

Why you should listen

Lee Cronin's lab at the University of Glasgow does cutting-edge research into how complex chemical systems, created from non-biological building blocks, can have real-world applications with wide impact. At TEDGlobal 2012, Cronin shared some of the lab's latest work: creating a 3D printer for molecules. This device -- which has been prototyped -- can download plans for molecules and print them, in the same way that a 3D printer creates objects. In the future, Cronin says this technology could potentially be used to print medicine -- cheaply and wherever it is needed. As Cronin says: "What Apple did for music, I'd like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs."

At TEDGlobal 2011, Cronin shared his lab's bold plan to create life. At the moment, bacteria is the minimum unit of life -- the smallest chemical unit that can undergo evolution. But in Cronin's emerging field, he's thinking about forms of life that won't be biological. To explore this, and to try to understand how life itself originated from chemicals, Cronin and others are attempting to create truly artificial life from completely non-biological chemistries that mimic the behavior of natural cells. They call these chemical cells, or Chells. 

Cronin's research interests also encompass self-assembly and self-growing structures -- the better to assemble life at nanoscale. At the University of Glasgow, this work on crystal structures is producing a raft of papers from his research group. He says: "Basically one of my longstanding research goals is to understand how life emerged on planet Earth and re-create the process."

Read the papers referenced in his TEDGlobal 2102 talk:

Integrated 3D-printed reactionware for chemical synthesis and analysis, Nature Chemistry

Configurable 3D-Printed millifluidic and microfluidic ‘lab on a chip’ reactionware devices, Lab on a Chip

More profile about the speaker
Lee Cronin | Speaker | TED.com