Michel Dugon: The secrets of spider venom
מישל דוגון: סודות ארס העכבישים
Michel Dugon researches the potential of spider venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents. Full bio
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ששמחים מאד שהם יושבים שם.
that are very happy to be up there now.
היא בעצם התגלמות האימה.
is the incarnation of terror, really.
היא יותר מדי שעירה,
הישג יוצא מן הכלל של ההנדסה הביולוגית.
feat of bioengineering.
to all those creatures
since the beginning of time;
שהצליחו להעמיד צאצאים
that have managed to have offspring
until this day.
על כוכב הלכת הזה.
started to evolve on this planet.
להפוך למה שהם היום:
to become what they are now:
תוך כדי הסתבכות עם טרנטולה,
to give a speech
I have to say.
to all those ruthless battles
consistently by all our ancestors,
כל אחת ואחד מכם,
every single one of you,
שלא נקטע.
one-billion-years-old success story.
ממה שיש לה בחזה,
to what she has in her chest,
שמחוברות לזוג ניבים,
that are attached to a pair of fangs,
and without this venom,
managed to survive.
מערכות ארס כדי לשרוד.
venom systems in order to survive.
אם תרצו,
של תרכובות כימיות.
of chemical compounds.
התפתחו למטרה אחת ויחידה:
have evolved purely for one purpose:
in many different ways.
כאבים שמעולם לא חשתם.
pains that you've never felt before.
בתוך דקות,
your heart stop within minutes,
almost instantly,
your flesh away, like acid.
אני יודע,
gruesome stories, I know,
התרכובות החזקות האלה
all those super powerful compounds
תרופות אנטיביוטיות חדשות,
produce new antibiotics with those venoms?
that are suffering from diabetes
נמצאים בפיתוח
are already being developed
בעוד אני מדבר.
everywhere around the world, as I speak.
נעשה בעזרת תרופה
regularly with a medication
by a South American viper.
can be monitored using, actually,
by a lizard from North America.
לצורך הרדמה.
a marine snail for anesthetics.
library of chemical compounds
of thousands of live creatures.
to go for a little walk.
thought to produce
kinds of compounds
המדענים הצליחו עד כה לחקור?
actually have managed to study so far?
עדיין אינן ידועות,
99.99 percent of all those compounds
to be harvested and tested,
המדענים ריכזו את מאמציהם
have concentrated their efforts
very dangerous animals --
ואלמנות שחורות.
and black widows.
שמצויים בקרבתינו ביומיום?
that we actually have all around us?
that lives behind your couch?
to just shoot through the floor
ולהבהיל אתכם?
מין תרכובת מופלאה?
some kind of amazing compound
היתה, "אין לנו מושג."
would have been, "We have no clue."
התחלנו לחקור את זה,
have started to look into it,
שחבר'ה האלה אכן מפיקים
actually are producing
more about that in a second,
"התחלנו לחקור את זה".
about this "we are looking into it."
צריכים ללכוד המון עכבישים.
have to capture a lot of spiders.
מוצאים המון עכבישים.
one finds a lot of spiders.
200, 300, 400 עכבישים,
two, three, four hundred spiders,
in its own individual home.
שהייתי מייעץ לכם להתחיל בו.
I would advise you to start.
אנו מחכים כמה ימים,
we wait a few days,
זרם חשמלי חלש
little electric current through their body
טיפונת של ארס.
a tiny little droplet of venom appearing.
glass tube, a capillary,
and we put it back into its home,
בתהליך הזה,
unharmed during the process,
of venom again and they've recovered,
לטיפת גשם אחת.
of one raindrop of venom.
כל תרכובת כימית שיש בארס.
chemical compound that is in that venom.
של תרכובת,
of a millionth of a liter of compound,
תרכובת זו פי כמה אלפים
several thousand times
על קשת שלמה של דברים מרושעים,
a whole range of nasty stuff,
part of my job starts,
משאבים כה רבים,
those compounds ready,
רק מידי פעם,
עם השפעות מדהימות.
that has absolutely amazing effects.
else from my pocket --
עכביש נפוץ מאד.
I have, actually, a very common spider.
that you could find in your shed,
רבות עוצמה,
antimicrobial compounds.
העמידים לתרופות
those drug-resistant bacteria
ומגיעים לכותרות הראשיות.
בצנרת הביוב שלכם,
in your sewer pipe,
לאחת הבעיות הכי חמורות שלנו.
to a very, very serious concern we have.
every single day,
בגלל זיהומים עמידים לאנטיביוטיקה.
antimicrobial-resistant infections.
700,000 מתים מידי שנה בשנה
of 700,000 people dead every single year
לפני 30, 20 או עשר שנים,
30, 20 or 10 years ago
חיידקים נפוצים ביותר.
very common bugs.
is running out of antibiotics,
does not have any answer,
to address that concern.
סוגי אנטיביוטיקה חדשים
new kinds of antibiotics
every couple of years.
בחמש השנים האחרונות?
hit the market in the past five years?
that if we continue this way,
נהיה לגמרי חסרי-ישע
from being completely helpless
לפני 90 שנה.
of penicillin 90 years ago.
נגד אויב בלתי-נראה
is that we are at war
a lot quicker than we do.
הנשק הסודי הכי חזק שלנו.
one of our greatest secret weapons.
of a liter of a venom,
to any other kind of antibiotics.
על הניסוי הזה, אני תוהה:
this experiment, I just wonder:
טמונים בבני משפחתו?
do the siblings actually have?
אם רק נטרח לחפש?
can we really find, if we care to look?
"האם החרקים הם באמת עתיד התרופות?"
really the future of therapeutic drugs?"
שיש להם חלק מרכזי בפתרון הבעיה."
that they do hold some key answers."
לחקור אותם.
the means to investigate them.
in the corner of your room ...
באמת ובתמים,
an absolutely fantastic creature,
תבוא יום אחד התשובה,
one day, will hold the answer,
to your very own survival.
היא כבר לא כזו חסרת משמעות, נכון?
anymore now, is she?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michel Dugon - Zoologist, venom researcherMichel Dugon researches the potential of spider venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents.
Why you should listen
Michel Dugon runs the Venom Systems and Proteomics Lab and teaches zoology at the National University of Ireland Galway. His research focuses on the evolution of venom systems and on the potential of arthropod venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents. After a six-year stint chasing venomous creatures in the jungles of South East Asia, Dugon published extensively on the evolution of venom systems while pursuing a PhD in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. He was awarded the 2015 Irish National Teaching Award in Higher Education and the 2017 Ryan Award for Innovation. Dugon is currently working on developing the VIDAA network (Venom Investigations for the Development of Antimicrobial Agents) in collaboration with Irish, French and Belgian researchers.
As the founder and director of the science outreach Eco Explorers, Dugon dedicates a sizable amount of his time to promoting ecological awareness in the media and in schools throughout Ireland. Dr Dugon's work has been featured on national and international networks, including RTE, the BBC, Euronews and SKY.
Michel Dugon | Speaker | TED.com