7 insightful TED talks on the future of medicine

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In 1847, James Young Simpson first used anesthesia during surgery, and in 1928 Alexander Fleming isolated the first antibiotic, penicillin. We invite you to get acquainted with prominent scientists of our time, who, perhaps, are also destined to go down in the history of medicine.

Not a single holiday congratulation is complete without a wish of health, with the weakening of which, as you know, there will be neither a feeling of happiness, nor sense from a hobby, nor pleasure from work. And health, in turn, will not exist without the theorists and practitioners of medicine, who set the vector of its development for the coming decades and with all their might implement the planned.

How probiotics cure cancer

Tal Danino PhD in Bioengineering, Biological Systems Researcher

It is hard to imagine that there are more bacteria in our body than there are stars in the galaxy. With the advancement of modern technology, today we can program bacteria in the same way as computers.

In his talk, “We Can Use Bacteria to Detect and Possibly Cure Cancer,” Tal Danino describes his team's achievement that made it extremely easy to diagnose liver cancer, one of the most “elusive” diseases. Moreover, scientists have taught bacteria to treat the tumor environment at the molecular level.

Why antibiotics are becoming ineffective

Maryn McKenna Freelance health journalist and author

Infections are spreading around the world, against which of the more than one hundred antibiotics available on the market, two drugs can help, leading to side effects, or only one, or none. Today we are on the verge of a post-antibiotic era, when simple infections will kill people again.

In his speech "What will we do when antibiotics stop helping?" Marin McKenna says that bacteria adapt to antibiotics faster than humanity can invent something new. The reason for this is the mistakes of doctors, the pursuit of large profits by agricultural producers and, what is most insulting, the thoughtless attitude to antibiotics of each individual.

How to defeat HIV with a laser

Patience Mthunzi Biophotonics Researcher

Taking pills is the most effective and painless way to deliver the medicine to the body. The disadvantage, however, is that this leads to a weakening of the action of the pill. And this is a serious problem, especially for HIV patients. The effect of the drug dissipates by the time it enters the bloodstream, and even worse - by the time it reaches the zones where their effect is most important - in the storage of the HIV virus.

In his speech "Can HIV be cured with lasers?" Patience Mtunzi describes a method for targeting HIV-infected cells in the body using a laser. Such a campaign has a number of undeniable advantages over traditional pill treatment and promises a long-awaited victory over an incurable disease.

How young blood affects an older body

Tony Wyss-Coray PhD in Immunology, Researcher in Neurology

Blood is a tissue that contains not only cells that carry oxygen, but also signaling molecules - hormone-like factors that carry information from cell to cell, from tissue to tissue, including the brain. If we consider how blood changes with illness or with age, can we learn something about the brain?

In his speech “How young blood can help reverse aging. Yes, seriously."

Can Alzheimer's Disease Be Beaten?

Samuel Cohen PhD in Biophysical Chemistry, Researcher in Protein Self-Organization

If you hope to live to be 85 or longer, the chances of you getting Alzheimer's are one in two. In other words, it is likely that you will spend your golden years either suffering from Alzheimer's or helping to care for a friend or relative with Alzheimer's.

In his talk, "Alzheimer's is not a natural aging process, and we can cure it," Samuel Cohen refutes the conventional wisdom that Alzheimer's is a natural aging process in the brain. Samuel claims that over 10 years of research, a group of scientists from the University of Cambridge have identified the stage at which the disease can be stopped and found an effective method of treating it.

What will replace pills

Siddhartha Mukherjee Doctor of Immunology, Pulitzer Prize Winner

The number of all chemical reactions in the human body reaches a million. And how much or what proportion are reactions that are available to all our pharmaceuticals and medicinal chemistry? Only 250. The rest is chemical darkness. In other words, only 0.025% of all chemical reactions in our body can be influenced by antibiotics.

In his speech “Soon we will heal with cells, not pills,” Siddhartha Mukherjee shares his own experience in the study of stem cells and describes a new model of treatment of diseases, according to which the disease is not trying to kill, but the conditions for its disappearance are created.

Is it worth editing DNA

Jennifer Doudna Doctor of Biochemistry, Researcher in Structural Biology Imagine if we could try to design people with improved characteristics, such as stronger bones, or people with properties that we might find desirable, such as different eye color or taller. These are "design people", if you like. Nowadays, there is practically no genetic information to understand which genes are responsible for these traits. But it's important to understand that CRISPR technology has given us the tool to make these changes.

In his speech “Now we can edit DNA. But let's be smart.”Jennifer Doudna is very cautious about the super-promising technology for modifying the human genome. The speaker does not hide the pride and greatness of the achievement itself, but at the same time calls on the scientific world to introduce a moratorium on real DNA editing.