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

Stampa il tuo medicinale - Lee Cronin

Filmed:
1,045,687 views

Il chimico Lee Cronin sta lavorando ad una stampante 3D che, al posto di oggetti, è in grado di stampare molecole. Un'interessante e promettente applicazione a lungo termine: creare il proprio farmaco usando inchiostri chimici.
- 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
OrganicOrganico chemistschimici make moleculesmolecole,
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I chimici organici creano molecole,
00:19
very complicatedcomplicato moleculesmolecole,
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molecole molto complesse,
00:21
by choppingtagliare a pezzi up a biggrande moleculemolecola into smallpiccolo moleculesmolecole
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scomponendo molecole grandi in molecole più piccole
00:24
and reverseinverso engineeringingegneria.
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e facendo ingegneria inversa.
00:26
And as a chemistchimico,
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Come chimico,
00:27
one of the things I wanted to askChiedere my researchricerca groupgruppo a couplecoppia of yearsanni agofa is,
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una delle cose che ho voluto chiedere al mio gruppo di ricerca un paio di anni fa è stata:
00:31
could we make a really coolfreddo universaluniversale chemistrychimica setimpostato?
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possiamo creare un kit universale di chimica davvero cool?
00:35
In essenceessenza, could we "appApp" chemistrychimica?
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In sostanza, possiamo fare della chimica un'applicazione?
00:40
Now what would this mean, and how would we do it?
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Ma che significa, e come lo potremmo realizzare?
00:43
Well to startinizio to do this,
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Per iniziare abbiamo preso
00:45
we tookha preso a 3D printerstampante
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una stampante 3D
00:47
and we startediniziato to printstampare our beakersBecher and our testTest tubestubi on one sidelato
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e abbiamo iniziato a produrre becher e provette da un lato,
00:51
and then printstampare the moleculemolecola at the samestesso time on the other sidelato
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e a 'stampare' allo stesso tempo la molecola dall'altro;
00:55
and combinecombinare them togetherinsieme in what we call reactionwarereactionware.
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poi li abbiamo combinati nel reactionware
(gel polimerico contenente i reagenti).
00:58
And so by printingstampa the vesselnave and doing the chemistrychimica at the samestesso time,
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Così, lavorando su vaso e
chimica allo stesso tempo
01:03
we maypuò startinizio to accessaccesso this universaluniversale toolkitToolkit of chemistrychimica.
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possiamo accedere a questo kit universale
di chimica.
01:08
Now what could this mean?
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Ma dove voglio arrivare?
01:09
Well if we can embedincorporare biologicalbiologico and chemicalchimico networksreti like a searchricerca enginemotore,
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Beh, se possiamo incorporare delle reti chimiche e biologiche in un motore di ricerca,
01:15
so if you have a cellcellula that's illmalato that you need to curecura
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se avete bisogno di curare una cellula malata
01:18
or bacteriabatteri that you want to killuccidere,
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o se volete uccidere un batterio,
01:20
if you have this embeddedinserito in your devicedispositivo
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se disponete di un tale dispositivo,
01:22
at the samestesso time, and you do the chemistrychimica,
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e allo stesso tempo impostate la chimica,
01:24
you maypuò be ablecapace to make drugsfarmaci in a newnuovo way.
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potreste creare medicinali in un modo nuovo.
01:28
So how are we doing this in the lablaboratorio?
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Ma come facciamo ciò in laboratorio?
01:30
Well it requiresrichiede softwareSoftware, it requiresrichiede hardwarehardware
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Beh, serve del software, dell'hardware
01:33
and it requiresrichiede chemicalchimico inksinchiostri.
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e degli inchiostri chimici.
01:36
And so the really coolfreddo bitpo is,
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Il concetto, la cosa davvero fantastica,
01:37
the ideaidea is that we want to have a universaluniversale setimpostato of inksinchiostri
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è di poter disporre di un gamma universale di inchiostri
01:40
that we put out with the printerstampante,
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da inserire nella stampante,
01:43
and you downloadScaricare the blueprintBlueprint, the organicbiologico chemistrychimica for that moleculemolecola
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poi scaricate il prototipo dalla rete, cioè
la chimica organica per quella molecola,
01:47
and you make it in the devicedispositivo.
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e la create nel vostro dispositivo.
01:50
And so you can make your moleculemolecola in the printerstampante usingutilizzando this softwareSoftware.
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Così potete creare la vostra molecola nella stampante usando questo software.
01:55
So what could this mean?
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Cosa significa, quindi?
01:58
Well, ultimatelyin definitiva, it could mean that you could printstampare your ownproprio medicinemedicina.
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In sostanza, significa che potreste stampare
le vostre medicine.
02:03
And this is what we're doing in the lablaboratorio at the momentmomento.
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Ed è ciò che stiamo facendo in laboratorio
al momento.
02:05
But to take babybambino stepspassaggi to get there,
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Ma per procedere a piccoli passi fino a qui,
02:06
first of all we want to look at drugdroga designdesign and productionproduzione,
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innanzitutto occorre analizzare design e produzione di farmaci,
02:09
or drugdroga discoveryscoperta and manufacturingproduzione.
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come si scoprono e come si fabbricano.
02:12
Because if we can manufactureproduzione it after we'venoi abbiamo discoveredscoperto it,
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Perché se riusciamo a fabbricarli
dopo averli scoperti,
02:15
we could deploydistribuire it anywheredovunque.
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allora possiamo distribuirli ovunque.
02:17
You don't need to go to the chemistchimico anymorepiù.
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Non avreste più bisogno di andare in farmacia.
02:19
We can printstampare drugsfarmaci at pointpunto of need.
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Potremmo fabbricare medicinali
quando servono.
02:22
We can downloadScaricare newnuovo diagnosticsdiagnostica.
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Potremmo scaricare nuove tecniche diagnostiche.
02:24
Say a newnuovo supersuper buginsetto has emergedè emerso.
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Supponiamo che compaia un nuovo super virus,
02:26
You put it in your searchricerca enginemotore,
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inserite i dati nel vostro motore di ricerca,
02:28
and you createcreare the drugdroga to treattrattare the threatminaccia.
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e create il farmaco per debellare la minaccia.
02:31
So this allowsconsente you on-the-flyon-the-fly molecularmolecolare assemblymontaggio.
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Ciò vi permette di assemblare molecole
in quattro e quattr'otto.
02:35
But perhapsForse for me the corenucleo bitpo going into the futurefuturo
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Ma forse, per me, la parte più importante per il futuro
02:38
is this ideaidea of takingpresa your ownproprio stemstelo cellscellule,
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è l'idea che potrete creare le vostre cellule staminali,
02:41
with your genesgeni and your environmentambiente,
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con i vostri geni e nel vostro ambiente,
02:43
and you printstampare your ownproprio personalpersonale medicinemedicina.
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e stampare le vostre medicine personali.
02:46
And if that doesn't seemsembrare fancifulfantasiose enoughabbastanza,
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E se ciò non vi sembra abbastanza fantasioso,
02:48
where do you think we're going to go?
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dove pensate che potremmo arrivare?
02:50
Well, you're going to have your ownproprio personalpersonale matterimporta fabricatorfabricator.
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Beh, magari al generatore personale di materia.
02:55
BeamFascio me up, ScottyScotty.
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Teletrasportaci, Scotty!
02:57
(ApplauseApplausi)
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(Applausi)
Translated by Laura Bennardo
Reviewed by Ariana Bleau Lugo

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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