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: Cetak obat Anda sendiri

Filmed:
1,045,687 views

Kimiawan Lee Cronin mengerjakan printer 3 dimensi yang dapat mencetak molekul. Sebuah penerapan jangka panjang yang potensial: mencetak obat Anda sendiri menggunakan tinta kimia.
- 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
OrganicOrganik chemistsahli kimia make moleculesmolekul,
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Kimiawan organik membuat molekul
00:19
very complicatedrumit moleculesmolekul,
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yang sangat rumit,
00:21
by choppingmemotong up a bigbesar moleculemolekul into smallkecil moleculesmolekul
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dengan memotong molekul yang besar menjadi molekul-molekul kecil
00:24
and reversemembalikkan engineeringteknik.
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dan rekayasa terbalik.
00:26
And as a chemistahli kimia,
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Sebagai seorang kimiawan,
00:27
one of the things I wanted to askmeminta my researchpenelitian groupkelompok a couplepasangan of yearstahun agolalu is,
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salah satu hal yang ingin saya tanyakan beberapa tahun yang lalu kepada grup saya
00:31
could we make a really coolkeren universaluniversal chemistrykimia setset?
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adalah dapatkah kita membuat rangkaian kimia universal yang bagus?
00:35
In essenceesensi, could we "appaplikasi" chemistrykimia?
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Dengan kata lain, dapatkah kita membuatnya menjadi "aplikasi?"
00:40
Now what would this mean, and how would we do it?
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Lalu apa maksudnya dan bagaimana melakukannya?
00:43
Well to startmulai to do this,
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Untuk memulainya
00:45
we tookmengambil a 3D printerpencetak
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kami mengambil printer 3 dimensi
00:47
and we starteddimulai to printmencetak our beakersgelas and our testuji tubestabung on one sidesisi
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dan kami mulai mencetak gelas beaker dan tabung uji pada sisi yang satu
00:51
and then printmencetak the moleculemolekul at the samesama time on the other sidesisi
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lalu mencetak molekul pada sisi yang lain
00:55
and combinemenggabungkan them togetherbersama in what we call reactionwarereactionware.
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lalu menggabungkan keduanya. Kami menyebutnya "peralatan reaksi."
00:58
And so by printingpencetakan the vesselkapal and doing the chemistrykimia at the samesama time,
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Dengan mencetak alat dan melakukan reaksi kimia sekaligus
01:03
we maymungkin startmulai to accessmengakses this universaluniversal toolkittoolkit of chemistrykimia.
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kita dapat mulai mengakses alat universal kimia ini.
01:08
Now what could this mean?
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Lalu apa artinya?
01:09
Well if we can embedmenanamkan biologicalbiologis and chemicalbahan kimia networksjaringan like a searchpencarian enginemesin,
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Jika kita dapat memasukkan jaringan biologi dan kimi aseperti mesin pencari
01:15
so if you have a cellsel that's illsakit that you need to curemenyembuhkan
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sehingga jika ada sel yang perlu dipulihkan
01:18
or bacteriabakteri that you want to killmembunuh,
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atau bakteri yang harus dibunuh,
01:20
if you have this embeddedtertanam in your devicealat
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jika kita bisa memasukkan hal ini
01:22
at the samesama time, and you do the chemistrykimia,
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pada saat yang sama sambil melakukan reaksi kimia,
01:24
you maymungkin be ablesanggup to make drugsnarkoba in a newbaru way.
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Anda dapat membuat obat dengan cara baru.
01:28
So how are we doing this in the lablaboratorium?
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Jadi bagaimana kami melakukannya di laboratorium?
01:30
Well it requiresmembutuhkan softwareperangkat lunak, it requiresmembutuhkan hardwareperangkat keras
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Kami memerlukan piranti lunak, piranti keras,
01:33
and it requiresmembutuhkan chemicalbahan kimia inkstinta.
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dan juga tinta kimia.
01:36
And so the really coolkeren bitsedikit is,
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Sehingga hal yang keren adalah
01:37
the ideaide is that we want to have a universaluniversal setset of inkstinta
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gagasan di mana kami inign memiliki rangkaian tinta kimia universal
01:40
that we put out with the printerpencetak,
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yang dapat kami masukkan ke printer ini,
01:43
and you downloaddownload the blueprintcetak biru, the organicorganik chemistrykimia for that moleculemolekul
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lalu Anda mengunduh cetak birunya, kimia organik dari molekul itu
01:47
and you make it in the devicealat.
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dan Anda membuatnya dengan alat itu.
01:50
And so you can make your moleculemolekul in the printerpencetak usingmenggunakan this softwareperangkat lunak.
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Sehingga Anda dapat membuat molekul dengan printer ini menggunakan piranti lunak itu.
01:55
So what could this mean?
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Jadi apa artinya?
01:58
Well, ultimatelyakhirnya, it could mean that you could printmencetak your ownsendiri medicineobat.
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Pada akhirnya, ini berarti Anda dapat mencetak obat Anda sendiri.
02:03
And this is what we're doing in the lablaboratorium at the momentsaat.
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Dan inilah yang kami lakukan di laboratorium saat ini.
02:05
But to take babybayi stepstangga to get there,
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Namun untuk sedikit melangkah menuju ke sana,
02:06
first of all we want to look at drugobat designDesain and productionproduksi,
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pertama-tama kami ingin melihat pada rancangan dan produksi obat-obatan
02:09
or drugobat discoverypenemuan and manufacturingmanufaktur.
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atau penemuan dan pembuatan obat-obatan.
02:12
Because if we can manufacturepembuatan it after we'vekita sudah discoveredditemukan it,
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Karena jika kita dapat membuatnya setelah menemukannya
02:15
we could deploymenyebarkan it anywheredimana saja.
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kita dapat menyebarkannya di manapun.
02:17
You don't need to go to the chemistahli kimia anymorelagi.
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Anda tidak perlu pergi ke apotek lagi.
02:19
We can printmencetak drugsnarkoba at pointtitik of need.
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Kita dapat mencetak obat kita saat dibutuhkan.
02:22
We can downloaddownload newbaru diagnosticsdiagnostik.
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Kita dapat mengunduh gejala penyakit baru.
02:24
Say a newbaru supersuper bugbug has emergedmuncul.
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Katakanlah ada kuman super yang muncul.
02:26
You put it in your searchpencarian enginemesin,
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Anda menaruhnya di mesin pencari
02:28
and you createmembuat the drugobat to treatmemperlakukan the threatancaman.
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lalu menciptakan obat untuk melawan ancaman itu.
02:31
So this allowsmemungkinkan you on-the-flyon-the-fly molecularmolekuler assemblymajelis.
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Hal ini memungkinkan Anda untuk membuat molekul.
02:35
But perhapsmungkin for me the coreinti bitsedikit going into the futuremasa depan
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Namun mungkin bagi saya gagasan inti di masa depan
02:38
is this ideaide of takingpengambilan your ownsendiri stembatang cellssel,
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adalah untuk mengambil sel punca Anda
02:41
with your genesgen and your environmentlingkungan Hidup,
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dengan gen dan lingkungannya,
02:43
and you printmencetak your ownsendiri personalpribadi medicineobat.
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lalu Anda dapat mencetak obat pribadi Anda sendiri.
02:46
And if that doesn't seemterlihat fancifulaneh enoughcukup,
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Dan jika hal itu tampak belum cukup hebat,
02:48
where do you think we're going to go?
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menurut Anda ke mana kami akan melangkah?
02:50
Well, you're going to have your ownsendiri personalpribadi mattermasalah fabricatorFabricator.
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Anda akan memiliki alat pembuat barang Anda sendiri.
02:55
BeamBalok me up, ScottyScotty.
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Soroti saya, Scotty.
02:57
(ApplauseTepuk tangan)
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(Tepuk tangan)
Translated by Antonius Yudi Sendjaja
Reviewed by Johan Santoso

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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