ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kary Mullis - Biochemist
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions.

Why you should listen

In the early 1980s, Kary Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, an elegant way to make copies of a DNA strand using the enzyme polymerase and some basic DNA "building blocks." The process opened the door to more in-depth study of DNA -- like the Human Genome Project. Mullis shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing this technique.

As he tells it, after winning the Nobel Prize, his next career move was to learn how to surf. It's typical of Mullis, whose scientific method is to get deeply curious about a topic, work it out from first principles, and then imagine the next giant leap forward. As he puts it in his Nobel autobiography, revised several times since 1993, "I read a lot, and think a lot, and I can talk about almost anything. Being a Nobel laureate is a license to be an expert in lots of things as long as you do your homework."

Most recently, he's been taking a hard look at immunity; a recent patent from his company Altermune describes the redirection of an existing immune response to a new pathogen.

More profile about the speaker
Kary Mullis | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Kary Mullis: A next-gen cure for killer infections

Kary Mullis dhe gjenerata e ardhshme e medikamenteve ndaj infektimeve fatale.

Filmed:
691,090 views

Bakteriet rezistente ndaj ilaçeve vrasin, edhe në spitalet më të mirë. Por tani infeksionet më të rënda si stafilokoku dhe antraksi mund të kenë surpriza. Çmimi Nobel në kimi Kary Mulls, që pa një mik të tij të vdesë pasi edhe antibiotikët më të fuqishëm falimentuan, zbulon një kurë të re radikale që jep premtim të jashtëzakonshëm.
- Biochemist
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions. Full bio

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

00:18
So it was about four years ago, five years ago,
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Dikur para katër apo pesë vjetësh,
00:21
I was sitting on a stage in Philadelphia, I think it was,
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isha i ulur në një skenë në Filadelfia, mendoj se ishte,
00:23
with a bag similar to this.
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me një çantë të ngjashme me këtë.
00:26
And I was pulling a molecule out of this bag.
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Dhe isha duke nxjerre nje molekulë nga kjo çantë.
00:29
And I was saying, you don't know this molecule really well,
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Dhe thoja, ju nuk e njihni ketë molekulë shumë mirë,
00:32
but your body knows it extremely well.
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por trupi juaj e njeh teper mirë.
00:35
And I was thinking that your body hated it, at the time,
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Dhe në atë kohë, mendoja se trupi juaj e urrente atë,
00:39
because we are very immune to this. This is called alpha-gal epitope.
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sepse ne jemi të imunizuar kundër saj. Kjo quhet alpha-gal epitope.
00:42
And the fact that pig heart valves have lots of these on them
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Dhe fakti se valvulat e zemrës së derrit kanë shumë kesi gjërash
00:46
is the reason that you can't transplant a pig heart valve into a person easily.
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është arsyeja pse ju nuk mund të transplantoni zemrën e derrit në një njeri.
00:50
Actually our body doesn't hate these.
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Faktikisht trupi ynë nuk i urren ato.
00:52
Our body loves these. It eats them.
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Trupi ynë i pëlqen ato. I ha ato.
00:55
I mean, the cells in our immune system are always hungry.
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Dua të them që qelizat e sistemit tonë imunitar jane gjithnje te uritura.
00:58
And if an antibody is stuck to one of these things
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Dhe nëse ndonjë antitrup mbërthehet në një nga këto gjëra
01:02
on the cell, it means "that's food."
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në qelizë, do të thotë "kjo është ushqim".
01:05
Now, I was thinking about that and I said, you know, we've got this
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Tani, unë isha duke menduar për atë gjë dhe thashë, e dini, ne kemi këtë
01:07
immune response to this ridiculous molecule
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përgjigje imune ndaj kësaj molekule qesharake
01:10
that we don't make, and we see it a lot in other animals and stuff.
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që ne nuk e krijojmë, dhe e shohim në shumë kafshë etj.
01:14
But I said we can't get rid of it,
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Por unë thashë ne nuk mund ta heqim atë,
01:17
because all the people who tried to transplant heart valves
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sepse të gjithë njerëzit që u munduan të transplantojnë valvulat e zemrës
01:19
found out you can't get rid of that immunity.
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kanë gjetur se ju nuk mund të hiqni këtë imunitet.
01:21
And I said, why don't you use that?
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Dhe unë thashë, pse nuk e përdorni atë?
01:23
What if I could stick this molecule,
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Çfarë ndodh, nëse unë do ta futja këtë molekulë,
01:26
slap it onto a bacteria
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në një bakterie
01:28
that was pathogenic to me, that had just invaded my lungs?
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do të ishte patogjenike per mua, që sapo ka pushtuar mushkëritë e mia?
01:32
I mean I could immediately tap into
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Unë mendoj se mund të futja menjëherë
01:34
an immune response that was already there,
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një përgjigje imune që tashmë do të ishte aty brenda,
01:36
where it was not going to take five or six days to develop it --
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ku nuk do te kërkonte më shumë se 5 - 6 dite për tu zhvilluar --
01:39
it was going to immediately attack whatever this thing was on.
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do të sulmonte kudo qe kjo gje do te futej.
01:42
It was kind of like the same thing that happens when you,
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Eshtë e ngjashme me gjërat që ndodhin kur ju,
01:44
like when you're getting stopped for a traffic ticket in L.A.,
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sikur ju t'ju kenë ndaluar për një gjobë qarkullimi rrugor në Los Anxheles
01:48
and the cop drops a bag of marijuana in the back of your car,
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dhe polici ju fut një çantë me marijuana në autoveturën tuaj,
01:51
and then charges you for possession of marijuana.
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dhe pastaj ju dënon për mbajtje marijuane.
01:54
It's like this very fast, very efficient way to get people off the street.
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Është si kjo shumë shpejte, shumë e lehtë për ë hequr njërzit nga rruga.
01:58
(Laughter)
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(Të qeshura)
02:00
So you can take a bacteria
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Pra ju mund të merrni një bakterie
02:02
that really doesn't make these things at all,
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kjo nuk i ben gjerat aspak,
02:04
and if you could clamp these on it really well
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dhe nëse mund të futni këto mirë
02:06
you have it taken off the street.
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ju mund ti hiqni nga rrugët.
02:08
And for certain bacteria
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Dhe për disa bakterie
02:10
we don't have really efficient ways to do that anymore.
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ne nuk mund ta bëjmë këtë gjë.
02:12
Our antibiotics are running out.
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Antibiotikët tane po humbin aftësi.
02:14
And, I mean, the world apparently is running out too.
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Dhe, mendoj, se bota po harxhohet gjithashtu.
02:17
So probably it doesn't matter 50 years from now --
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Pra nuk ka rëndësi se në 50 vite --
02:20
streptococcus and stuff like that will be rampant --
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streptococcus dhe gjëra si kjo do të jenë endemikë --
02:23
because we won't be here. But if we are --
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sepse ne nuk do te jemi këtu. Por nëse jemi --
02:25
(Laughter)
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(Të qeshura)
02:27
we're going to need something to do with the bacteria.
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ne na duhet një gjë për të ndaluar këto bakterie.
02:29
So I started working with this thing,
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Pra unë fillova të punoja ne këtë gjë,
02:33
with a bunch of collaborators.
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me shumë koleg tjerë.
02:35
And trying to attach this to things that were
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Dhe per të bashkuar këtë gjë me gjëra që janë
02:38
themselves attached to certain specific target zones,
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vetë të bashkuara me zona tjera
02:42
bacteria that we don't like.
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me bakterie që ne nuk i duam.
02:44
And I feel now like George Bush.
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Dhe tani ndihem si George Bush.
02:48
It's like "mission accomplished."
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Është si "misioni i kryer."
02:50
So I might be doing something dumb, just like he was doing at the time.
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Pra mund te jem duke bere diçka tue keqe, sikur ai që kishte bërë në atë kohë.
02:53
But basically what I was talking about there we've now gotten to work.
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Por dua te them qe ne kemi filluar te punojmë.
02:57
And it's killing bacteria. It's eating them.
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Dhe është duke mbytur bakteriet. Duke i ngrënë ato.
03:01
This thing can be stuck, like that little green triangle up there,
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Kjo gjë mund të ngjitet, si ky trekëndëshi i gjelbert këtu lart,
03:05
sort of symbolizing this right now.
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që simbolizon këtë tani.
03:08
You can stick this to something called a DNA aptamer.
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You mund ta bashkoni këtë me ADN.
03:11
And that DNA aptamer will attach specifically
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Dhe ajo ADN do të bashkohet
03:13
to a target that you have selected for it.
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me objektivin që ju keni zgjedhur për të.
03:15
So you can find a little feature on a bacterium that you don't like,
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Pra ju mund të gjeni një karakteristikë të vogël në një bakterie që nuk e dëshironi
03:19
like Staphylococcus -- I don't like it in particular,
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si stafilokoku -- mua nuk më pëlqen dha aq,
03:22
because it killed a professor friend of mine last year.
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pasi vrau një mikun tim, profesor, vitin e kaluar.
03:25
It doesn't respond to antibiotics. So I don't like it.
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Nuk i reagon antibiotikeve. Pra nuk më pëlqen.
03:28
And I'm making an aptamer that will have this attached to it.
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Dhe jam duke bërë diçka që të bashkohet me të.
03:31
That will know how to find Staph when it's in your body,
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Qe do të di si të gjejë stafilokok ku është në trupin tuaj,
03:34
and will alert your immune system to go after it.
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dhe që do të alarmojë sistemin imunitar për ta sulmuar.
03:37
Here's what happened. See that line on the very top
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Kjo është ç'ndodhi. E vëreni këtë vizë në majë fare
03:40
with the little dots?
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me pikat e vogla?
03:42
That's a bunch of mice that had been poisoned
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Janë një grup minj që janë helmuar
03:45
by our scientist friends down in Texas,
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nga shokët tanë shkencëtar ne Teksas,
03:47
at Brooks Air Base, with anthrax.
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në Bazën Ajrore Bruks (Brooks), me anthrax.
03:50
And they had also been treated with a drug that we made
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Dhe po ashtu ata janë trajtuar me një medikament që ne kemi prodhuar
03:53
that would attack anthrax in particular,
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që do të sulmojë vetëm anthraksin,
03:56
and direct your immune system to it.
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dhe do të drejtojë sistemin imunitar tek ai.
03:58
You'll notice they all lived, the ones on the top line --
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Ju do ta shihni se ata te gjithë mbetën gjallë, ata në majë --
04:00
that's a 100 percent survival rate.
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me një indeks mbijetese 100 përqind
04:02
And they actually lived another 14 days,
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Në të vertetë ata jetuan edhe 14 dite tjera,
04:05
or 28 when we finally killed them,
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apo 28 kur ne i vramë,
04:07
and took them apart and figured out what went wrong.
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dhe i disektuam për të parë se çfarë vajti gabim.
04:10
Why did they not die?
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Pse ata nuk ngordhën?
04:12
And they didn't die because they didn't have anthrax anymore.
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Ata nuk ngordhën pasi ata nuk e kishin antraksin.
04:15
So we did it. Okay?
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Pra ja dolem. Mire?
04:17
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
04:19
Mission accomplished!
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Missioni u perfundua!
04:21
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
Translated by Helena Bedalli
Reviewed by Spartak Ferrollari

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kary Mullis - Biochemist
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions.

Why you should listen

In the early 1980s, Kary Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, an elegant way to make copies of a DNA strand using the enzyme polymerase and some basic DNA "building blocks." The process opened the door to more in-depth study of DNA -- like the Human Genome Project. Mullis shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing this technique.

As he tells it, after winning the Nobel Prize, his next career move was to learn how to surf. It's typical of Mullis, whose scientific method is to get deeply curious about a topic, work it out from first principles, and then imagine the next giant leap forward. As he puts it in his Nobel autobiography, revised several times since 1993, "I read a lot, and think a lot, and I can talk about almost anything. Being a Nobel laureate is a license to be an expert in lots of things as long as you do your homework."

Most recently, he's been taking a hard look at immunity; a recent patent from his company Altermune describes the redirection of an existing immune response to a new pathogen.

More profile about the speaker
Kary Mullis | Speaker | TED.com