演講MP3+雙語(yǔ)文稿:DNA技術(shù)如何能增加糧食產(chǎn)量

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[演講者及介紹]Laura Boykin

勞拉·博伊金，計(jì)算生物學(xué)家，活動(dòng)家，美國(guó)國(guó)務(wù)院國(guó)際信息局高級(jí)研究員。她利用技術(shù)幫助東非的農(nóng)民獲得更多的糧食來養(yǎng)活他們的家人。

[演講主題]我們?nèi)绾问褂肈NA技術(shù)來幫助農(nóng)民對(duì)抗農(nóng)作物疾病

[中英文字幕]

翻譯者 Yen Yen 校對(duì)者 psjmz mz

00:13

I get out of bed for two reasons. One,small-scale family farmers need more food. It's crazy that in 2019 farmers thatfeed us are hungry. And two, science needs to be more diverse and inclusive. Ifwe're going to solve the toughest challenges on the planet, like foodinsecurity for the millions living in extreme poverty, it's going to take allof us.

我早上起床為了兩個(gè)原因。第一，小規(guī)模農(nóng)民家庭需要更多的糧食。2019年，為我們供應(yīng)糧食的農(nóng)民們還要忍饑受餓，簡(jiǎn)直不可思議。第二，科學(xué)需要更多元化，更包容。如果我們要解決地球上最艱難的挑戰(zhàn)，如拯救成千上萬(wàn)地瘠民貧的糧食短缺，就需要我們所有人的共同努力。

00:41

I want to use the latest technology withthe most diverse and inclusive teams on the planet to help farmers have morefood. I'm a computational biologist. I know -- what is that and how is it goingto help end hunger? Basically, I like computers and biology and somehow,putting that together is a job.

我要用最先進(jìn)的科技，和地球上最多元化和包容的團(tuán)隊(duì)一起，幫助農(nóng)民們生產(chǎn)更多的糧食。我是一位計(jì)算生物學(xué)家。你們可能會(huì)好奇，那是什么？它將如何杜絕饑餓？這么說吧，我喜歡計(jì)算機(jī)和生物學(xué)，于是它們以某種方式結(jié)合在一起就成了一項(xiàng)工作。

01:01

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

01:02

I don't have a story of wanting to be abiologist from a young age. The truth is, I played basketball in college. Andpart of my financial aid package was I needed a work-study job. So one randomday, I wandered to the nearest building to my dorm room. And it just so happensit was the biology building. I went inside and looked at the job board. Yes,this is pre-the-internet. And I saw a three-by-five card advertising a job towork in the herbarium. I quickly took down the number, because it said"flexible hours," and I needed that to work around my basketball schedule.I ran to the library to figure out what an herbarium was.

我沒有從小要成為一個(gè)生物學(xué)家的故事。事實(shí)是，我在大學(xué)時(shí)是打籃球的。我一部分的經(jīng)濟(jì)來源依賴半工半讀。突然有一天，我漫步到了宿舍旁邊的建筑物，那剛好是生物學(xué)系。我進(jìn)去看到了招聘告示板。是的，那是在還沒有互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的時(shí)代。我看到了一張明信片大小的卡片，招募人員到植物標(biāo)本室工作。我趕緊記下聯(lián)絡(luò)號(hào)碼，因?yàn)樗f"工作時(shí)間靈活", 我需要那個(gè)來配合我的籃球時(shí)間表。然后我跑去圖書館查什么是植物標(biāo)本室。

01:49

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

01:51

And it turns out an herbarium is where theystore dead, dried plants. I was lucky to land the job. So my first scientificjob was gluing dead plants onto paper for hours on end.

原來植物標(biāo)本室是來收藏死了，干了的植物。我幸運(yùn)地被錄取了。所以我的第一份科學(xué)工作就是花上幾個(gè)小時(shí)將枯死的植物粘在紙上。

02:08

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

02:11

It's so glamorous. This is how I became acomputational biologist. During that time, genomics and computing were comingof age. And I went on to do my masters combining biology and computers.

它是如此的風(fēng)光啊。這就是我如何成為了計(jì)算生物學(xué)家。在那個(gè)時(shí)候，基因組學(xué)和計(jì)算學(xué)如日方升。畢業(yè)后我開始攻讀結(jié)合生物學(xué)和計(jì)算機(jī)的碩士。

02:26

During that time, I worked at Los AlamosNational Lab in the theoretical biology and biophysics group. And it was thereI had my first encounter with the supercomputer, and my mind was blown. Withthe power of supercomputing, which is basically thousands of connected PCs onsteroids, we were able to uncover the complexities of influenza and hepatitisC. And it was during this time that I saw the power of using computers andbiology combined, for humanity. And I wanted this to be my career path. So,since 1999, I've spent the majority of my scientific career in very high-techlabs, surrounded by really expensive equipment.

當(dāng)時(shí)，我在拉斯阿拉莫斯國(guó)家實(shí)驗(yàn)室理論生物學(xué)和生物物理學(xué)組工作。就在那里，我初次見證了超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)，真是驚為天人。借助超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)，也就是數(shù)千臺(tái)聯(lián)網(wǎng)電腦的力量，我們能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)流感病毒和丙性肝炎的復(fù)雜性。正是這時(shí)候我看到了利用計(jì)算機(jī)和生物學(xué)相結(jié)合來造福人類的力量。我想把這當(dāng)作終生事業(yè)。所以，從1999年開始，我大部分的科學(xué)生涯都在非常高科技的實(shí)驗(yàn)室里度過，周圍都是非常昂貴的設(shè)備。

03:10

So many ask me how and why do I work forfarmers in Africa. Well, because of my computing skills, in 2013, a team ofEast African scientists asked me to join the team in the plight to savecassava. Cassava is a plant whose leaves and roots feed 800 million peopleglobally. And 500 million in East Africa. So that's nearly a billion peoplerelying on this plant for their daily calories. If a small-scale family farmerhas enough cassava, she can feed her family and she can sell it at the marketfor important things like school fees, medical expenses and savings.

很多人問我，我為什么，又是如何為非洲的農(nóng)民工作的。由于我的計(jì)算技能，在2013年，一個(gè)東非科學(xué)家小組邀請(qǐng)我加入拯救木薯的隊(duì)伍。木薯的葉子和根部能養(yǎng)活全球8億人，有5億人在東非。差不多有十億人依靠這種植物來供應(yīng)他們每天的卡路里。如果一個(gè)小型家庭農(nóng)場(chǎng)主有足夠的木薯，她就可以養(yǎng)活她的家人，并在市場(chǎng)上售賣這些木薯，換取重要的東西，如學(xué)費(fèi)，醫(yī)療費(fèi)用和儲(chǔ)蓄。

03:58

But cassava is under attack in Africa.Whiteflies and viruses are devastating cassava. Whiteflies are tiny insectsthat feed on the leaves of over 600 plants. They are bad news. There are manyspecies; they become pesticide resistant; and they transmit hundreds of plantviruses that cause cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic disease.This completely kills the plant. And if there's no cassava, there's no food orincome for millions of people.

但是，木薯的種植在非洲受到了沖擊。粉虱和病毒在摧毀著木薯。粉虱是體型微小的昆蟲，以超過600種植物的樹葉為食。它們不請(qǐng)自來，有很多種類，具有抗藥性，還能傳播數(shù)百種植物病毒，導(dǎo)致木薯患上棕色條紋病和木薯馬賽克病。這會(huì)徹底殺死作物。如果沒有木薯，那數(shù)百萬(wàn)人就沒有食物或收入。

04:36

It took me one trip to Tanzania to realizethat these women need some help. These amazing, strong, small-scale familyfarmers, the majority women, are doing it rough. They don't have enough food tofeed their families, and it's a real crisis. What happens is they go out andplant fields of cassava when the rains come. Nine months later, there'snothing, because of these pests and pathogens. And I thought to myself, how inthe world can farmers be hungry?

我去了一趟坦桑尼亞，意識(shí)到那里的婦女需要一些幫助。這些了不起的，堅(jiān)強(qiáng)的，小型家庭農(nóng)場(chǎng)主，大多數(shù)是婦女，他們的生活苦不堪言。他們沒有足夠的食物來養(yǎng)活家人，這是一場(chǎng)真正的危機(jī)?，F(xiàn)實(shí)情況是，當(dāng)雨季來臨的時(shí)候，她們到木薯田里耕種。九個(gè)月之后，什么都沒有，都是因?yàn)檫@些害蟲和病原體。我不禁心想，這世界上怎么還有食不果腹的農(nóng)民呢？

05:09

So I decided to spend some time on theground with the farmers and the scientists to see if I had any skills thatcould be helpful. The situation on the ground is shocking. The whiteflies havedestroyed the leaves that are eaten for protein, and the viruses have destroyedthe roots that are eaten for starch. An entire growing season will pass, andthe farmer will lose an entire year of income and food, and the family willsuffer a long hunger season. This is completely preventable. If the farmer knewwhat variety of cassava to plant in her field, that was resistant to thoseviruses and pathogens, they would have more food.

所以我決定花一段時(shí)間在田里，跟著農(nóng)民和科學(xué)家們，看看我是否有幫得上忙的技能。當(dāng)?shù)鼐謩?shì)令人震驚。粉虱毀壞樹葉為攝取蛋白質(zhì)，病毒摧毀根部為攝取淀粉。在整個(gè)生長(zhǎng)季節(jié)過去后，農(nóng)民將失去整整一年的收入和食物，他們的家庭將遭受一個(gè)漫長(zhǎng)的饑餓季節(jié)。這完全是可以預(yù)防的。如果農(nóng)民知道 在她的田里種植什么品種的木薯 可以抵抗這些病毒和病原體，她們就會(huì)有更多的食物。

05:51

We have all the technology we need, but theknowledge and the resources are not equally distributed around the globe. Sowhat I mean specifically is, the older genomic technologies that have beenrequired to uncover the complexities in these pests and pathogens -- thesetechnologies were not made for sub-Saharan Africa. They cost upwards of amillion dollars; they require constant power and specialized human capacity.These machines are few and far between on the continent, which is leaving manyscientists battling on the front lines no choice but to send the samplesoverseas. And when you send the samples overseas, samples degrade, it costs alot of money, and trying to get the data back over weak internet is nearlyimpossible. So sometimes it can take six months to get the results back to thefarmer. And by then, it's too late. The crop is already gone, which results infurther poverty and more hunger.

我們擁有我們需要的所有科技，但這些知識(shí)和資源在全球的分布非常不均衡。我想強(qiáng)調(diào)的是，傳統(tǒng)的基因組技術(shù)被用于揭露這些害蟲和病原體的復(fù)雜性—— 這些技術(shù)不是為 南非撒哈拉地帶而設(shè)的。它們的花費(fèi)在一百萬(wàn)美元以上，需要不斷的電力供應(yīng)和專門的技術(shù)人員操作。這些機(jī)器在非洲大陸上寥寥無幾，讓許多在前線戰(zhàn)斗的科學(xué)家不得不 把樣品送到海外。當(dāng)你把樣品送到海外時(shí)，樣品會(huì)降解，花費(fèi)很昂貴，而且在糟糕的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)中取回?cái)?shù)據(jù)幾乎是不可能的。所以有時(shí)可能需要六個(gè)月的時(shí)間把結(jié)果送回農(nóng)民手里。那時(shí)已經(jīng)太晚了。作物已經(jīng)被摧毀，造成持續(xù)的貧困和更多的饑餓。

06:54

We knew we could fix this. In 2017, we hadheard of this handheld, portable DNA sequencer called an Oxford NanoporeMinION. This was being used in West Africa to fight Ebola. So we thought: Whycan't we use this in East Africa to help farmers? So, what we did was we setout to do that. At the time, the technology was very new, and many doubted wecould replicate this on the farm. When we set out to do this, one of our"collaborators" in the UK told us that we would never get that towork in East Africa, let alone on the farm. So we accepted the challenge. Thisperson even went so far as to bet us two of the best bottles of champagne thatwe would never get that to work. Two words: pay up.

我們知道我們可以解決這個(gè)問題。在2017年，我們聽說了這個(gè)叫做 Oxford Nanopore MinION 的 手持便攜式DNA測(cè)序儀。它曾在西非抗擊埃博拉時(shí)功不可沒。因此，我們認(rèn)為： 為什么不用這個(gè)在東非幫助農(nóng)民呢？ 于是，我們要做的就是開始著手行動(dòng)。當(dāng)時(shí)，這項(xiàng)科技非常新穎，許多人懷疑我們能否在農(nóng)地里復(fù)制相似的結(jié)果。當(dāng)我們開始這樣做時(shí)，我們有個(gè)英國(guó)的"合作伙伴" 告訴我們，這永遠(yuǎn)都不會(huì)發(fā)生在東非，更別說在農(nóng)田里了。因此，我們接受了挑戰(zhàn)。這個(gè)人甚至和我們打賭兩瓶最好的香檳，說我們永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)實(shí)現(xiàn)的。三個(gè)字：買單吧。

07:52

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

07:54

(Applause)

（掌聲）

07:58

Pay up, because we did it. We took theentire high-tech molecular lab to the farmers of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda,and we called it Tree Lab. So what did we do? Well, first of all, we gaveourselves a team name -- it's called the Cassava Virus Action Project. We madea website, we gathered support from the genomics and computing communities, andaway we went to the farmers.

買單吧，因?yàn)槲覀冏龅搅恕Ｎ覀儼颜麄€(gè)高科技分子實(shí)驗(yàn)室?guī)Ыo了坦桑尼亞，肯尼亞和烏干達(dá)的農(nóng)民們，我們稱它為"樹實(shí)驗(yàn)室"。那我們做了什么？首先我們給自己取了一個(gè)隊(duì)名——叫做木薯病毒行動(dòng)項(xiàng)目。我們制作了一個(gè)網(wǎng)站，從基因組學(xué)和計(jì)算社區(qū)中召集支持，然后去農(nóng)民那里。

08:41

We figured if we could get the data closerto the problem, and closer to the farmer, the quicker we could tell her whatwas wrong with her plant. And not only tell her what was wrong -- give her thesolution. And the solution is, burn the field and plant varieties that areresistant to the pests and pathogens she has in her field. So the first thingthat we did was we had to do a DNA extraction. And we used this machine here.It's called a PDQeX, which stands for "Pretty Damn Quick Extraction."

我們認(rèn)為，如果我們能使數(shù)據(jù)更貼近問題，更貼近農(nóng)民，我們就能更快地判斷她的植物出了什么問題。不僅能診斷出問題——還能給她解決方案。解決辦法就是，燒掉那片田地，并種上對(duì)害蟲和病原體具有抵抗力的植物品種。所以，我們必須做的第一件事是進(jìn)行DNA提取。我們?cè)谶@里用的是這臺(tái)機(jī)器，叫做"PDQeX"，代表“死快死快的提取"。

09:16

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

09:19

I know. My friend Joe is really cool. Oneof the biggest challenges in doing a DNA extraction is it usually requires veryexpensive equipment, and takes hours. But with this machine, we've been able todo it in 20 minutes, at a fraction of the cost. And this runs off of amotorcycle battery.

有意思吧。我的朋友喬真的很酷。最大的挑戰(zhàn)之一是進(jìn)行DNA提取，它通常需要非常昂貴的設(shè)備，需要幾個(gè)小時(shí)。但是有了這臺(tái)機(jī)器，我們?cè)诙昼妰?nèi)就能完成，而且成本低廉，只需要摩托車的電池供電。

09:41

From there, we take the DNA extraction andprepare it into a library, getting it ready to load on to this portable,handheld genomic sequencer, which is here, and then we plug this into a minisupercomputer, which is called a MinIT. And both of these things are pluggedinto a portable battery pack. So we were able to eliminate the requirements ofmain power and internet, which are two very limiting factors on a small-scale familyfarm. Analyzing the data quickly can also be a problem. But this is where mebeing a computational biologist came in handy. All that gluing of dead plants,and all that measuring, and all that computing finally came in handy in areal-world, real-time way. I was able to make customized databases and we wereable to give the farmers results in three hours versus six months.

我們將提取的DNA存入序列庫(kù)，準(zhǔn)備加載到這個(gè)便攜式手持基因組測(cè)序儀中，就是這個(gè)裝置，然后我們將它連上一臺(tái)微型超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)，稱為" MinIT"。這兩個(gè)裝置由便攜式電池供電。這樣一來，我們就能夠排除對(duì)主要電源和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的依賴，這兩者是一個(gè)小型家庭農(nóng)場(chǎng)運(yùn)作的局限因素?？焖俜治鰯?shù)據(jù)也可能是個(gè)問題。但是，我這位計(jì)算生物學(xué)家的存在派上了用場(chǎng)。所有枯死植物的標(biāo)本，所有的測(cè)量，和所有的計(jì)算，終于在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界中以實(shí)時(shí)方式派上用場(chǎng)了。我能夠定制數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)，在三小時(shí)內(nèi)給農(nóng)民結(jié)果，而不是六個(gè)月。

10:42

(Applause)

（掌聲）

10:50

The farmers were overjoyed. So how do weknow that we're having impact? Nine moths after our Tree Lab, Asha went fromhaving zero tons per hectare to 40 tons per hectare. She had enough to feed herfamily and she was selling it at the market, and she's now building a house forher family. Yeah, so cool.

農(nóng)民們欣喜若狂。那么我們又怎么知道我們的策略產(chǎn)生了影響呢？ "樹實(shí)驗(yàn)室"之后的九個(gè)月，阿莎的收獲從每公頃零噸木薯上升到了每公頃40噸木薯。她有足夠的糧食養(yǎng)活她的家人，還有多余在市場(chǎng)上售賣，現(xiàn)在，她已經(jīng)能夠?yàn)榧胰松w房子了。是的，太酷了。

11:14

(Applause)

（掌聲）

11:18

So how do we scale Tree Lab? The thing is,farmers are scaled already in Africa. These women work in farmer groups, sohelping Asha actually helped 3,000 people in her village, because she sharedthe results and also the solution.

那么，我們?nèi)绾螖U(kuò)展"樹實(shí)驗(yàn)室"呢？事實(shí)上，農(nóng)民在非洲已頗具規(guī)模。這些婦女以團(tuán)體為單位進(jìn)行勞作，所以幫助阿莎，實(shí)際上就幫助了她村子里的3000人，因?yàn)樗窒砹私Y(jié)果以及解決方案。

11:34

I remember every single farmer I've evermet. Their pain and their joy is engraved in my memories. Our science is forthem. Tree Lab is our best attempt to help them become more food secure. Inever dreamt that the best science I would ever do in my life would be on thatblanket in East Africa, with the highest-tech genomic gadgets. But our team diddream that we could give farmers answers in three hours versus six months, andthen we did it. Because that's the power of diversity and inclusion in science.

我記得我見過的每一個(gè)農(nóng)民。他們的痛苦和喜悅深深的刻在我的記憶中。我們的科學(xué)是為他們而進(jìn)行的。"樹實(shí)驗(yàn)室"是我們?cè)趲椭麄兲嵘称钒踩矫孀詈玫膰L試。我從未夢(mèng)想過我一生中做過最好的科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)會(huì)在東非的毯子上，用最先進(jìn)的基因組工具包。但我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)確實(shí)夢(mèng)想過在三小時(shí)內(nèi)給農(nóng)民答案，而不再需要六個(gè)月，然后我們做到了。因?yàn)槟鞘强茖W(xué)多元化和包容性的力量。

12:17

Thank you.

謝謝。

12:19

(Applause)

（掌聲）

12:22

(Cheers)

（歡呼聲）