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NinaTandon_2011U-_培育工程化组织_
Good morning everybody. 大家早上好
I work with really amazing, little, itty-bitty creatures called cells. 我从事的是一种不可思议的 非常非常微小的生物,叫做细胞
itty-bitty:adj.极小的(等于itsy-bitsy); creatures:n.生物;动物;(具有某种特征的)人(creature的复数)
And let me tell you what it's like to grow these cells in the lab. 让我来向大家展示 实验室里如何培育这些细胞
I work in a lab where we take cells out of their native environment. 在我工作的实验室,我们把细胞从它们原本的生长环境中取出来
native:adj.本国的;土著的;天然的;与生俱来的;天赋的;n.本地人;土产;当地居民;
We plate them into dishes that we sometimes call petri dishes. 我们把它们放到器皿中 我们通常称之为培养皿
And we feed them -- sterilely of course -- with what we call cell culture media -- which is like their food -- and we grow them in incubators . 然后我们培养它们 -- 当然是无菌的 -- 用一种叫做细胞培养基的东西 -- 类似于他们的食物 -- 然后我们在孵化器中培养他们
media:n.媒体;媒质(medium的复数);血管中层;浊塞音;中脉; incubators:n.育成中心;培养器;[禽]孵化员(incubator的复数);
Why do I do this? 我为什么这么做?
We observe the cells in a plate, and they're just on the surface. 我们在培养皿中观察细胞 这只是表面上的
observe:v.观察;看到;庆祝;监视;
But what we're really trying to do in my lab is to engineer tissues out of them. 我们在实验室中真正要做的是 把组织从细胞中分离
tissues:n.纸巾,手巾纸;(人、动植物细胞的)组织;(tissue的复数)
What does that even mean? 那意味着什么呢？
Well it means growing an actual heart, let's say, or grow a piece of bone that can be put into the body. 这意味着生成一个真的心脏 比方说 培育一块骨头 它可以被植入人体内
Not only that , but they can also be used for disease models. 不仅如此,它们还可以被用于疾病模型
only that:只是;要不是; disease:n.病,[医]疾病;弊病;vt.传染;使…有病;
And for this purpose, traditional cell culture techniques just really aren't enough. 为了这个目的,传统的细胞培养技术 是远远不够的
traditional:传统的,惯例的, techniques:n.技巧;技艺;工艺;技术;(technique的复数)
The cells are kind of homesick; the dish doesn't feel like their home. 细胞会想家 培养皿不像它们的家
And so we need to do better at copying their natural environment to get them to thrive . 因此在复制它们原始的生存环境上面我们需要做的更好 从而让它们更好的生长
thrive:v.繁荣;茁壮成长;蓬勃发展;兴旺发达;
We call this the biomimetic paradigm -- copying nature in the lab. 我们称之为仿生（biomimetic paradigm）-- 即在实验室中复制自然环境
paradigm:n.范例;词形变化表;
Let's take the example of the heart, the topic of a lot of my research. 让我们用培育心脏举例 我为此做了许多研究
What makes the heart unique ? 是什么让心脏与众不同
unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物;
Well, the heart beats, rhythmically , tirelessly , faithfully . 恩,是心跳 有节奏的,不知疲倦的,不停的跳动
rhythmically:adv.有节奏地; tirelessly:adv.不知疲倦地;不屈不挠地; faithfully:adv.忠实地;如实地;诚心诚意地;深信着地;
We copy this in the lab by outfitting cell culture systems with electrodes . 我们在实验室复制它 用一套电极细胞培养系统
outfitting:n.码头舾装;舾装设备;v.配备;供应(outfit的ing形式); electrodes:n.[电]电极(electrode的复数);电焊条;
These electrodes act like mini pacemakers to get the cells to contract in the lab. 这些电极起到类似迷你起搏器的作用 从而让实验室内的细胞间产生联系
pacemakers:[基医]起搏器; contract:v.收缩;感染;订约;n.合同;婚约;
What else do we know about the heart? 关于心脏我们还了解什么？
Well, heart cells are pretty greedy . 心脏细胞非常贪婪
greedy:adj.贪婪的;贪吃的;渴望的;
Nature feeds the heart cells in your body with a very, very dense blood supply. 在身体中自然培育心脏细胞 需要非常非常大量的血液供给
dense:adj.稠密的;浓厚的;愚钝的;
In the lab, we micro-pattern channels in the biomaterials on which we grow the cells, and this allows us to flow the cell culture media, the cells' food, 在实验室中,我们用生物材料 做成微型通道 来培养细胞 这让细胞培养基得以流动,成为细胞的食物
biomaterials:n.[材]生物材料(biomaterial的复数);
through the scaffolds where we're growing the cells -- a lot like what you might expect from a capillary bed in the heart. 通过我们培育细胞的脚手架 -- 很像大家印象里 心脏中的毛细血管床的样子
scaffolds:n.支架;[建]脚手架;绞刑台(scaffold的复数); capillary:adj.细长的;表面张力的;n.毛细管;毛细血管;
So this brings me to lesson number one: life can do a lot with very little. 这就教会我们第一课: 生命可以用细小的东西做很多事
Let's take the example of electrical stimulation . 让我们举一个电刺激的例子
electrical:adj.有关电的;电气科学的; stimulation:n.刺激;激励,鼓舞;
Let's see how powerful just one of these essentials can be. 看看这些小东西中的一员可以变得多么强大
essentials:n.要素;要点;必需品;(essential的复数)
On the left, we see a tiny piece of beating heart tissue that I engineered from rat cells in the lab. 在左边,有很小的一片心脏跳动组织 它是我在实验室用老鼠的细胞培育的
It's about the size of a mini marshmallow . 差不多一个迷你棉花糖大小
marshmallow:n.棉花糖;蜀葵糖剂;药蜀葵;
And after one week, it's beating. 一个星期后,它开始跳动
You can see it in the upper left-hand corner. 你可以在左上角看见
upper:adj.上面的;内陆的;n.靴面;兴奋剂; left-hand:adj.左手的;左侧的;
But don't worry if you can't see it so well. 如果看不太清楚也没关系
It's amazing that these cells beat at all. 这些细胞可以跳动根本就是不可思议的
But what's really amazing is that the cells, when we electrically stimulate them, like with a pacemaker, that they beat so much more. 但是真正不可思议的是 这些细胞,当用类似起搏器的 电击它们的时候 它们的跳动加强了很多
electrically:adv.电力地;有关电地; stimulate:v.刺激;激发;促进;激励;
But that brings me to lesson number two: cells do all the work. 它们带给我们第二个启示: 细胞可以做任何工作
In a sense , tissue engineers have a bit of an identity crisis here, because structural engineers build bridges and big things, computer engineers, computers, but what we are doing is actually building enabling technologies for the cells themselves. 在某种程度上,组织工程师有点自身身份上的危机 因为,结构工程师 建造桥梁和大建筑 电脑工程师,设计电脑 但是我们做的事情 实际上是为细胞创造它们本身拥有的科技
In a sense:在某种意义上; identity:n.身份;同一性,一致;特性;恒等式; crisis:n.危机;危险期;决定性时刻;adj.危机的;用于处理危机的; structural:adj.结构的;建筑的; build bridges:建立桥梁;构建桥梁;建立纽带; enabling:adj.授权的;v.使能够;授权给(enable的现在分词); technologies:n.技术;科技(technology的复数);
What does this mean for us? 做这些对我们意味着什么？
Let's do something really simple. 让我们做些非常简单的事情
Let's remind ourselves that cells are not an abstract concept. 我们想一下 细胞并不是一个抽象的概念
remind:v.提醒;使想起; abstract:n.摘要; adj.抽象的; vt.摘要; vi.做摘要;
Let's remember that our cells sustain our lives in a very real way. 大家知道,我们的细胞支撑着我们的生命 用一种非常现实的方式
sustain:v.支持;支撑;遭受;证实;
'"We are what we eat," could easily be described as, "We are what our cells eat." “我们就是我们所吃的东西”,可以简单的理解成 “我们就是我们细胞所吃的东西”
described:v.描述;形容;把…称为;做…运动;(describe的过去分词和过去式)
And in the case of the flora in our gut , these cells may not even be human. 在我们肠道菌群失调的情况下 这些细胞甚至可能不会变成人类
flora:n.植物区系;植物群; gut:n.勇气;肠道;内脏;v.损毁内部;取出…的内脏;adj.非理性的;本能的
But it's also worth noting that cells also mediate our experience of life. 同样值得注意的是 细胞还可以改变我们的人生经历
mediate:vi.调解;斡旋;居中;vt.调停;传达;adj.间接的;居间的;
Behind every sound, sight, touch, taste and smell is a corresponding set of cells that receive this information and interpret it for us. 在每一个声音,视觉,触觉,味觉和嗅觉的背后 都是一套相应的细胞组合 它们接收这类信息 然后翻译给我们
corresponding:adj.符合的; v.相一致; (correspond的现在分词) interpret:v.诠释;说明;口译;把…理解为;
It begs the question: shall we expand our sense of environmental stewardship to include the ecosystem of our own bodies? 这就引出一个问题 我们是否应该把环境管理意识概念 扩展到我们身体的生态环境？
expand:v.扩张;使膨胀;详述;发展;张开,展开; stewardship:n.管理工作;管事人的职位及职责; ecosystem:n.生态系统;
I invite you to talk about this with me further, and in the meantime , I wish you luck. 我邀请大家之后一起讨论这个问题 与此同时,祝大家好运
in the meantime:在此期间;于此际;
May none of your non-cancer cells become endangered species . 希望大家的非癌症细胞 不会变成稀有物种
non-cancer:非肿瘤; endangered:v.使遭危险;危及;危害;(endanger的过去分词和过去式) species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
Thank you. 谢谢
(Applause) （掌声）