The next software revolution: programming biological cells | Sara-Jane Dunn

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The cells in your body are like computer software: they're "programmed" to carry out specific functions at specific times. If we can better understand this process, we could unlock the ability to reprogram cells ourselves, says computational biologist Sara-Jane Dunn. In a talk from the cutting-edge of science, she explains how her team is studying embryonic stem cells to gain a new understanding of the biological programs that power life -- and develop "living software" that could transform medicine, agriculture and energy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:11.0	You're listening to Ted Health, I'm Elise Hugh.
0:14.4	Scientists are now thinking about cells like we think of computer software.
0:18.0	That is, what if we could debug these building blocks of life to prevent disease or reprogram
0:23.0	ourselves for healthier bodies?
0:25.2	That's the game-changing idea behind today's Ted Summit 2019 talk from computational biologist Sarah Jane Dunn.
0:32.2	By the end, she shares an even more ambitious idea, one that could be a big boost for the planet.
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0:47.2	Please visit survey.prx.org slash health to take the survey today.
0:53.2	That's survey.prx.org slash health. Thanks.
0:59.2	The second half of the last century was completely defined by a technological revolution, the software revolution.
1:07.2	The ability to program electrons on a material called silicon made possible technologies, companies and industries that were at one point
1:17.2	unimaginable to many of us, but which have now fundamentally changed the way the world works.
1:24.2	The first half of this century, though, is going to be transformed by a new software revolution, the living software revolution.
1:33.2	And this will be powered by the ability to program biochemistry on a material called biology.
1:39.2	And doing so will enable us to harness the properties of biology to generate new kinds of therapies to repair damaged tissue, to reprogram faulty cells, or even build programmable operating systems out of biochemistry.
1:56.2	If we can realize this and we do need to realize it, its impact will be so enormous that it will make the first software revolution pale in comparison.
2:06.2	And that's because living software would transform the entirety of medicine, agriculture and energy and these receptors that dwarf those dominated by IT.
2:17.2	Imagine a programmable plants that fix nitrogen more effectively or resist emerging fungal pathogens, or even programming crops to be perennial rather than annual, so you could double your crop yields each year.
2:30.2	That would transform agriculture and how we'll keep our growing and global population fed.
2:37.2	Or imagine a programmable immunity, designing and harnessing molecular devices that guide your immune system to detect, eradicate, or even prevent disease.
2:47.2	This would transform medicine and how we'll keep our growing and aging population healthy.
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