Ed Boyden: A new way to study the brain's invisible secrets
埃德·博伊登: 由嬰兒尿布所啟發的大腦研究新法
Ed Boyden is a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
when you add water to them,
by millions of kids every day.
in a very clever way.
called a swellable material.
when you add water,
industrial kind of polymer.
in my group at MIT
something similar to the brain.
can peer inside
the biomolecules,
structure of the brain, if you will?
of how the brain is organized
the exact changes in the brain
and epilepsy and Parkinson's,
和帕金森氏症這些疾病,
treatments, much less cures,
we don't know the cause or the origins
a different point of view
been done over the last hundred years.
神經科學的方法。
how to build technologies
incredibly complicated.
over the first century of neuroscience
我們得知了
complicated network,
cells called neurons
through these complexly shaped neurons.
are connected in networks.
called synapses that exchange chemicals
交換化學物質,
to talk to each other.
our artist's rendition of it.
and thousands of kinds of biomolecules,
organized in complex, 3D patterns,
those electrical pulses,
和交換化學物質,
that allow neurons to work together
and feelings and so forth.
the neurons in the brain are organized
the biomolecules are organized
of molecules and neurons
how the brain conducts information
大腦如何傳送來自感官區的信號,
of molecular changes that occur
腦病變中發生的分子改變。
those molecules have changed,
or changed in pattern,
as targets for new drugs,
energy into the brain
computations that are afflicted
from brain disorders.
technologies over the last century
被用來掃描腦部。
that they are noninvasive,
不具有侵入性。
or voxels, as they're called,
and millions of neurons.
the molecular changes that occur
of these networks
to be conscious and powerful beings.
身為有意識的強大生物。
you have microscopes.
to look at little tiny things.
to look at things like bacteria.
像細菌這樣的小東西。
were discovered in the first place,
首次發現了神經元。
with a regular old microscope.
無法看到單個分子。
to see the brain more powerful,
更加強而有力地觀察大腦和其結構,
even better technologies.
started thinking:
to zoom in to the brain,
陳飛和保羅·湊博格。
Fei Chen and Paul Tillberg.
陳飛和保羅·湊博格。
are helping with this process.
if we could take polymers,
within the brain.
and you add water,
those tiny biomolecules from each other.
and get maps of the brain.
just to buy it off the Internet
要容易得多。
that actually occur in these diapers.
of the baby diaper material
by about a thousandfold
very interesting molecule,
to really zoom in on the brain
前所未能的技術來近觀大腦,
with past technologies.
in the baby diaper polymer?
what you see on the screen.
arranged in long, thin lines.
move everything apart in the brain.
每一樣東西的距離拉遠。
is going to absorb the water,
apart from each other,
is going to become bigger.
只有生物分子那麼一丁點大,
these polymer chains inside the brain
ground truth maps of the brain.
and see the molecules within.
at, in these artist renderings,
like and how we might separate them.
to do, first of all,
shown in brown here,
of the brain apart from each other,
to have a little handle
polymer and dump it on the brain,
傾倒在腦上,
to make the polymers inside.
讓聚合物進到腦裡面去。
get the building blocks,
those long chains,
around biomolecules
to pull apart the molecules
of those little handles is around,
and that's exactly what we need
apart from each other.
以鬆開分子,
all the molecules from each other,
to start absorbing the water,
will come along for the ride.
a picture on a balloon,
away from each other.
to do now, but in three dimensions.
all the biomolecules brown.
kind of look the same.
out of the same atoms,
能用視覺辨別出來。
作為區分他們的小標籤。
that will distinguish them.
might get a blue color.
might get a red color.
far apart enough from each other
we can make the invisible visible.
我們把不可見的變成可見的。
small and obscure
of information about life.
of what it might look like.
right before your eyes --
is going to grow.
or even more in volume.
those polymers are so tiny,
evenly from each other.
of the information.
actual brain circuitry --
involved with, for example, memory --
how circuits are configured.
我們也能讀出記憶的內容。
at how circuits are configured
處理情緒的神經電路組織,
of our brain is organized
at a molecular level.
查明腦病的問題。
look into cells in the brain
molecules that have altered
的這17個分子病變
undergoing epilepsy
of things that are going wrong,
at different parts of the brain
研究不一樣的大腦部位,
with Parkinson's or epilepsy
或其他病症的十億人口。
或其他病症的十億人口。
over a billion people
has been happening.
that expansion might help with.
可以助益的其他問題。
from a human breast cancer patient.
乳腺癌患者的活體檢視。
if you look at development --
large-scale biological systems.
大規模的生物系統有關。
with those little nanoscale molecules,
and the organs in our body tick.
to do now is to figure out
to map the building blocks of life
基礎生命結構組成的脈絡。
the molecular changes in a tumor
腫瘤的分子變化,
go after it in a smart way
exactly the cells that we want to?
is very high risk.
what might be a high-risk moon shot
feat of engineering.
necessarily have all the laws.
我們未必了解所有的定律。
that are analogous to gravity,
導出那些定律來。
that occur in living systems,
the diseases that plague us.
have two young kids,
is to make life better for them
turn biology and medicine
that are governed by chance and luck,
that we win by skill and hard work,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ed Boyden - NeuroengineerEd Boyden is a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute.
Why you should listen
Ed Boyden leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain. His group applies these tools in a systematic way in order to reveal ground truth scientific understandings of biological systems, which in turn reveal radical new approaches for curing diseases and repairing disabilities. These technologies include expansion microscopy, which enables complex biological systems to be imaged with nanoscale precision, and optogenetic tools, which enable the activation and silencing of neural activity with light (TED Talk: A light switch for neurons). Boyden also co-directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, which aims to develop new tools to accelerate neuroscience progress.
Amongst other recognitions, Boyden has received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015), the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences (2015), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Grete Lundbeck Brain Prize (2013) and the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2013). He was also named to the World Economic Forum Young Scientist list (2013) and the Technology Review World's "Top 35 Innovators under Age 35" list (2006). His group has hosted hundreds of visitors to learn how to use new biotechnologies and spun out several companies to bring inventions out of his lab and into the world. Boyden received his Ph.D. in neurosciences from Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, where he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. Before that, he received three degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and physics from MIT. He has contributed to over 300 peer-reviewed papers, current or pending patents and articles, and he has given over 300 invited talks on his group's work.
Ed Boyden | Speaker | TED.com