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: Imprima os seus próprios medicamentos

Filmed:
1,045,687 views

O químico Lee Cronin está a trabalhar numa impressora 3D que, em vez de objetos, tem a capacidade de imprimir moléculas. Uma aplicação excitante a longo prazo: imprimir os seus próprios remédios usando tintas químicas.
- 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
OrganicOrgânicos chemistsquímicos make moleculesmoléculas,
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Os químicos orgânicos criam moléculas,
00:19
very complicatedcomplicado moleculesmoléculas,
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moléculas muito complicadas,
00:21
by choppingpicar up a biggrande moleculemolécula into smallpequeno moleculesmoléculas
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partindo uma grande molécula em
moléculas pequenas
00:24
and reversemarcha ré engineeringEngenharia.
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e usando retrotécnica.
00:26
And as a chemistquímico,
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Como químico,
00:27
one of the things I wanted to askpergunte my researchpesquisa groupgrupo a couplecasal of yearsanos agoatrás is,
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uma das coisas que queria perguntar ao meu
grupo de investigação há alguns anos é:
00:31
could we make a really coollegal universaluniversal chemistryquímica setconjunto?
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será que conseguimos criar um conjunto
universal de química mesmo fixe?
00:35
In essenceessência, could we "appaplicativo" chemistryquímica?
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Basicamente, podíamos reduzir a química
a uma aplicação?
00:40
Now what would this mean, and how would we do it?
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O que quereria isto dizer e como o faríamos?
00:43
Well to startcomeçar to do this,
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Para começar a fazer isto,
00:45
we tooktomou a 3D printerimpressora
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pegamos numa impressora 3D
00:47
and we startedcomeçado to printimpressão our beakerscopos de vidro and our testteste tubestubos on one sidelado
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e começámos por imprimir provetas
e tubos de ensaio num lado,
00:51
and then printimpressão the moleculemolécula at the samemesmo time on the other sidelado
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imprimir, ao mesmo tempo,
a molécula noutro lado
00:55
and combinecombinar them togetherjuntos in what we call reactionwarereactionware.
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e combinar os dois naquilo que chamamos
"louça de reação"
00:58
And so by printingimpressão the vesselembarcação and doing the chemistryquímica at the samemesmo time,
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Assim, ao imprimirmos o recipiente e fazermos
a reação química ao mesmo tempo,
01:03
we maypode startcomeçar to accessAcesso this universaluniversal toolkitKit de ferramentas of chemistryquímica.
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poderemos começar a aceder a este
conjunto universal de química.
01:08
Now what could this mean?
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Agora, o que é que isto quer dizer?
01:09
Well if we can embedEmbutir biologicalbiológico and chemicalquímico networksredes like a searchpesquisa enginemotor,
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Bem, se conseguirmos incluir redes biológicas
e químicas como se fossem um motor de busca,
01:15
so if you have a cellcélula that's illeu vou that you need to curecura
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de modo a que se tiverem uma
célula doente que querem tratar
01:18
or bacteriabactérias that you want to killmatar,
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ou uma bactéria que querem matar,
01:20
if you have this embeddedembutido in your devicedispositivo
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se tiverem isto incluído no vosso aparelho
ao mesmo tempo
01:22
at the samemesmo time, and you do the chemistryquímica,
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e fizerem a química,
01:24
you maypode be ablecapaz to make drugsdrogas in a newNovo way.
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podem estar a fazer drogas de uma nova forma.
01:28
So how are we doing this in the lablaboratório?
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Por isso, como é que estamos a fazer isto
no laboratório?
01:30
Well it requiresexige softwareProgramas, it requiresexige hardwarehardware
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Bem, precisamos de software,
precisamos de hardware
01:33
and it requiresexige chemicalquímico inkstintas.
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e precisamos de tintas químicas.
01:36
And so the really coollegal bitpouco is,
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E o que é mesmo fixe é
01:37
the ideaidéia is that we want to have a universaluniversal setconjunto of inkstintas
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a ideia de criarmos um
conjunto universal de tintas
01:40
that we put out with the printerimpressora,
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que podemos pôr na impressora,
01:43
and you downloadbaixar the blueprintBlueprint, the organicorgânico chemistryquímica for that moleculemolécula
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vocês fazem o download do modelo,
da química orgânica para aquela molécula,
01:47
and you make it in the devicedispositivo.
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e fazem-na no aparelho.
01:50
And so you can make your moleculemolécula in the printerimpressora usingusando this softwareProgramas.
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Então, podem fazer a vossa molécula
na impressora usando este software.
01:55
So what could this mean?
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O que é que isto pode querer dizer?
01:58
Well, ultimatelyem última análise, it could mean that you could printimpressão your ownpróprio medicineremédio.
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Bem, em última análise, pode significar que
podem imprimir os vossos próprios remédios.
02:03
And this is what we're doing in the lablaboratório at the momentmomento.
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E é isso que andamos a fazer
no laboratório, atualmente.
02:05
But to take babybebê stepspassos to get there,
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Mas para darmos passos pequenos
para chegar lá,
02:06
first of all we want to look at drugdroga designdesenhar and productionProdução,
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primeiro, temos que ver o modelo
e produção da droga,
02:09
or drugdroga discoverydescoberta and manufacturingfabricação.
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ou a descoberta e produção da droga.
02:12
Because if we can manufacturefabricação it after we'venós temos discovereddescobriu it,
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Porque se a pudermos produzir
depois de a descobrirmos,
02:15
we could deployimplantar it anywherequalquer lugar.
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podemos enviá-la para qualquer lado.
02:17
You don't need to go to the chemistquímico anymorenão mais.
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Já não precisamos de ir à farmácia.
02:19
We can printimpressão drugsdrogas at pointponto of need.
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Podemos imprimir as drogas conforme precisamos.
02:22
We can downloadbaixar newNovo diagnosticsdiagnósticos.
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Podemos fazer o download
de novos diagnósticos.
02:24
Say a newNovo supersuper bugerro has emergedemergiu.
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Digamos que se descobre uma
nova super bactéria.
02:26
You put it in your searchpesquisa enginemotor,
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Coloca-a no nosso motor de busca,
02:28
and you createcrio the drugdroga to treattratar the threatameaça.
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e pode criar a droga para tratar a ameaça.
02:31
So this allowspermite you on-the-flyon-the-fly molecularmolecular assemblymontagem.
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Isto permite construir moléculas no momento.
02:35
But perhapspossivelmente for me the coretestemunho bitpouco going into the futurefuturo
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Mas, se calhar para mim, a parte principal,
a longo prazo,
02:38
is this ideaidéia of takinglevando your ownpróprio stemhaste cellscélulas,
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é a ideia de pegarmos nas nossas
próprias células estaminais
02:41
with your genesgenes and your environmentmeio Ambiente,
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com os nossos genes e o nosso ambiente,
02:43
and you printimpressão your ownpróprio personalpessoal medicineremédio.
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e imprimirmos os nossos medicamentos
personalizados.
02:46
And if that doesn't seemparecem fancifulfantasiosa enoughsuficiente,
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E, se isto não parece suficientemente bom,
02:48
where do you think we're going to go?
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em que direção é que acham
que estamos a ir?
02:50
Well, you're going to have your ownpróprio personalpessoal matterimportam fabricatorFabricator.
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Bem, terão o vosso próprio
fabricante individual de matéria.
02:55
BeamFeixe de me up, ScottyScotty.
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"Teletransporta-me, Scotty."
02:57
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Sara Oliveira
Reviewed by Andre Dias

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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