The secrets of spider venom Michel Dugon

well hello this is Sophie it’s it’s it’s

alright don’t worry everything’s gonna

be fine

there are some people on the balcony

that are very happy to be out there now

so this is Sophie not Sophia no Sophie

now she has a French name now you wonder

why so Sophie for most people is the

incarnation of terror really she’s far

too leggy she’s far too hairy and she’s

far too big to ever be trusted but to me

Sophie is a fantastic feat of

bioengineering you see Sophie is a

testimony to all those creatures that

have managed to survive since the

beginning of times all those animals

that have managed to have offspring

generation after generation until this

day you see over 1 billion years ago the

first primitive cells have started to

evolve on this planet he took spiders

430 million years to become what they

are now one of the most versatile one of

the most diverse and one of the most

evolved group of predators to ever walk

this earth it’s actually quite sporty to

give a speech while wrangling a

tarantula I have to say so we shouldn’t

forget that Sophie and in fact all of us

we all are a testimony to all those

ruthless battles that actually we’re won

consistently by all our ancestors all

our predecessors in fact all of us every

single one of one of you is in fact and

interrupted 1 billion years old success

story and in the case of Sophie that

success is partly due to what she has in

chess just on the rise in there she has

a pair of venom glands that are attached

to a pair of fangs and those fangs are

folded into a mouth

so without those fangs and without this

venom Sophie would have never managed to

survive

now many animals have evolved to venom

systems in order to survive nowadays any

species of venomous snakes any species

of spider any species of scorpion has

its own venom signature if you want made

out of dozen if not hundreds chemical

compounds and all of those compounds

have evolved purely for one purpose

disable and eventually kill now venom

can actually act in many different ways

venom believe me can make you feel pains

that you’ve never felt before venom can

also make your heart stop within minutes

or it can turn your blood into jelly

venom can also paralyze you almost

instantly or it can just eat your flesh

away like acid now all these pretty

gruesome stories I know but me to me

it’s kind of music to my ears it’s what

I love so why is that well it’s not

because I’m a nutcase no just imaging

just imaging what we could do if we

could harvest all those sir powerful

compounds and use them to our benefit

that would be amazing right what if we

could I don’t know produce new

antibiotics with those venom what if we

could actually help people that are

suffering from diabetes or hypertension

well in fact all those applications are

already being developed by scientists

just like me

everywhere around the world as I speak

you see hypertension is actually treated

regularly with a medication that has

been developed from the toxin that is

produced by a South American Viper

people that have type 2 diabetes can be

monitored using actually the toxin

produced by a lizard from North America

and in hospitals all around the world a

new protocol is being developed to use a

toxin from a marine snail for

anesthetics

you see venom is that kind of huge

library of venom of chemical compounds

that are available to us that are

produced by hundreds of thousands of

life creatures and sorry she just wants

to go for a little walk

spider saloon actually thought to

produce over 10 million different kinds

of compounds with potential therapeutic

application ten millions and do you know

how many scientists actually have

managed to study so far about 0.01

percent so that mean that there is still

99.99% of all those compounds that are

out there completely unknown and are

just waiting to be harvested and tested

which is fantastic you see so far

scientists have concentrated efforts on

very charismatic very dangerous animals

Vipers and cobras or scorpions and black

widows but what about all those little

birds that we have actually are all

around us you know like that spider that

leaves behind your couch you know the

one that decide to just shoot through

the floor when you’re watching TV and

freak you out you have that one at home

as well

well what about those guys do they

actually produce some kind of amazing

compound in their tiny body as well

well our honest answer a few months ago

would have been we have no clue but now

that my students and myself has started

to look into it I can tell you those

guys actually are producing very very

interesting compounds and I’m going to

tell you more about that in a second but

first I would like to tell you more

about this we are looking into it how

does one look into it well first of all

my students and I have to capture a lot

of spiders so how do we do that well

you’d be surprised

once one start to look one finds a lot

of spiders they actually live everywhere

around us within a couple of hours we

are capable of CAP catching maybe two

three four hundred spiders and we

bring them back to my laboratory and we

house each of them in its own individual

home and we give each of them a little

meal so now I know what you’re thinking

I think these guys nuts he has a spider

B&B at work no no it’s not exactly that

and it’s not the kind of venture I would

I would advise you to start no once we

are done with that we wait a few days

and then we anesthetize the spiders once

they’re asleep we run a tiny little

electric current through the body and

that contracts their venom glands then

under a microscope we can feel tiny

little droplets of venom appearing so we

take a hair thin glass tube a capillary

and we collect the tiny droplets then we

take the spider and we put it back into

its home and we start again with another

one because spiders are completely

unharmed during the process it means

that a few days later once they’ve

produced a little bit of venom again and

that they’ve recovered we can release

them back in the wild it takes literally

hundreds of spiders to just produce the

equivalent of one raindrop of venom so

that drop is incredibly precious to us

and once we have it we freeze it and we

then pass it in a machine that will

separate and purify every chemical

compound that is in that venom we’re

speaking about tiny amounts we are

actually speaking about tenth of a

millionth of a liter of compound but we

can dilute that compound

several thousand times in its own volume

of water and then test it against a

whole range of nasty stuff like cancer

cells or bacteria and this this is when

the very exciting part of my job starts

because this is pure scientific gambling

it’s kind of Las Vegas baby for me it’s

we spent so many hours so much resources

so much time trying to get those

compounds ready and then we test them

and most of the time nothing happens

nothing at all but once in a while just

once in a while we

get that particular compound that has

absolutely amazing effect that’s the

jackpot and when I’m saying that

actually I should take out something

else from my pocket be afraid be very

afraid now in that little tube I have

actually a very common spider the kind

of spiders that you could find in your

shed that you could find in your

basement or that you could find in your

sewer pipe understand in your toilet now

that little spider happens to produce

amazingly powerful antimicrobial

compounds it is even capable of killing

those drug resistant bacteria that are

giving us so much trouble that are often

making media headlines now honestly if I

was living in new sewer pipe I’d produce

antibiotics too but that little spider

actually may hold the answer to a very

very serious concern we have you see

around the world every single day about

1,700 people died because of

antimicrobial resistant infections

multiply that by 365 and you’re reaching

the staggering number of 700,000 people

dead every single year because

antibiotics that were efficient 30 20 or

10 years ago are not capable of killing

very common bugs the reality is that the

world is running out of antibiotics and

the pharmaceutical industry does not

have any answer actually any weapon to

address that concern you see 30 years

ago you could consider that 10 to 15 new

kinds of antibiotics would hit the

market every couple of years do you know

how many of them hit the market in the

past five years - the reality is that if

we continue this way we are few decades

away to be completely helpless in front

of infections just like we were before

the discovery of penicillin 90 years ago

so you see the reality is that we are at

war against an invisible enemy that

adapts and evolves a lot quicker than we

and in that war this little spider might

be one of a greatest secret weapon just

half a millionth of a liter of a venom

diluted 10,000 times is still capable of

killing most bacteria that are resistant

to any other kind of antibiotics it’s

absolutely amazing

every time I repeat this experiment I

just wonder how is that possible how

many other possibilities and secrets all

siblings do actually have what kind of

wonderful product can we really find out

if we care to look so when people ask me

are bugs really the future of

therapeutic drugs my answer is well I

really believe that they do all some key

answers and we need to give ourselves

really the means to investigate them so

when you head back home later tonight

and that you see that spider in the

corner of your own don’t squash it

just look at it admire it and remember

that it is an absolutely fantastic

creature a pure product of evolution and

that maybe that very spider one day

we’ll all the answer will hold the key

to your very own survival you see she’s

not so insignificant anymore now is she

thank you

[Applause]

好吧,你好,这是苏菲,是的,

没关系,别担心,一切

都会好起来的

为什么对大多数人来说,苏菲

是恐怖的化身,她真的

太长了,她的毛太长了,而且她

太大了,无法信任,但对我来说,

苏菲是生物工程的一项了不起的壮举,

你看,苏菲是

所有那些生物的见证

自古以来,所有

动物都设法生存下来,

一代又一代地繁衍后代,直到

今天,你看到 10 亿多年前,

第一个原始细胞已经开始

在这个星球上进化,他用蜘蛛

4.3 亿年才变成

它们现在是最多才多艺的

一种最多样化

的掠食者,也是有史以来最进化的掠食者之一

在与狼蛛争吵时,

我不得不说,所以我们不应该

忘记苏菲,事实上我们所有人,

我们都是所有那些

无情战斗的见证,实际上我们

所有的祖先都始终如一地赢得了我们所有

的前辈事实上所有 事实上,我们中的

每一个人都被

打断了 10 亿年前的成功

故事,就苏菲而言,

成功的部分原因在于她在

国际象棋中的地位正在上升,她有

一对毒腺

附在一对毒牙上,这些毒牙

折叠成一张嘴,

所以没有这些毒牙,没有这种

毒液,索菲永远无法

生存

现在许多动物已经进化到毒液

系统,以便在当今

任何种类的毒蛇中生存

蜘蛛种类 任何种类的蝎子都有

自己的毒液特征,如果你想

用十几种(如果不是数百种)

化合物制成,所有这些化合物

的进化纯粹是为了一个目的,

禁用和最终 ally kill now 毒液

实际上可以以多种不同的方式发挥作用

毒液相信我可以

让你感到前所未有的疼痛 毒液

还可以在几分钟内让你的心脏停止跳动

或者它可以将你的血液变成果冻

毒液也可以几乎立即麻痹你

或者它可以像酸一样把你的肉吃掉

现在我知道所有这些非常

可怕的故事,但对我来说,

这对我来说是一种音乐,这就是

我喜欢的,所以为什么那么好,这不是

因为我是个疯子,不只是想象而已

想象一下,如果我们

能够收获所有这些强大的

化合物并将它们用于我们的利益

,那将是惊人的,如果我们

可以的话,我不

知道用这些毒液生产新的抗生素如果

我们真的可以帮助

受苦的人怎么办? 从糖尿病或

高血压,事实上,所有这些应用程序

已经由

像我这样的科学家

在世界各地开发,正如我所说,

你看到高血压实际上是

定期用药物治疗的 它

是从患有 2 型糖尿病的南美毒蛇人产生的毒素中开发出来的,

实际上可以使用

来自北美的蜥蜴产生的毒素进行监测,

并且在世界各地的医院

中,正在开发一种新的协议来 使用

来自海洋蜗牛的毒素进行

麻醉

你看 毒液 是我们可以使用的巨大

的化学化合物库

由数十万

生命体产生 抱歉她

只是想去散步

蜘蛛 沙龙实际上被认为

生产了超过 1000 万种

具有潜在治疗

应用价值的化合物,你知道有

多少科学家

到目前为止已经设法研究了大约 0.01

%,这意味着仍然有

99.99% 的化合物是

那里完全未知,

只是在等待收获和测试

,这太棒了,到目前为止,

科学家们已经专注于 在

非常有魅力的非常危险

的动物上的努力

当你在看电视的时候穿过地板

吓坏了你家里

也有那个人呢他们

真的

在他们的小身体里产生了某种惊人的化合物

以及我们几个月前的诚实回答

会 我们一直不知道,但

现在我的学生和我自己已经

开始研究它

想告诉你更多

关于这个我们正在研究它

首先我的学生如何很好地研究它

我必须捕获

很多蜘蛛所以我们如何做到这一点

你会感到惊讶

一次 我开始看,发现

很多蜘蛛实际上

几个小时内就

生活在我们

周围的任何地方 单独的

家,我们给他们每个人一

顿饭,所以现在我知道你在想什么

我认为这些家伙疯了

一旦

我们完成了我们等待几天

然后我们麻醉蜘蛛一旦

他们睡着了我们就会在身体中运行一个微小的

电流

并收缩它们的毒腺然后

在显微镜下我们可以感觉到很小

小毒液滴出现 所以

我们用一根细毛玻璃管 一根

毛细管 我们收集这些微小的液滴

然后我们把蜘蛛带回

它的家 我们从另一个开始重新开始

因为蜘蛛完全

没有 在这个过程中,这

意味着几天后,一旦它们

再次产生了一点毒液并且

它们已经恢复,我们可以将

它们放回野外,实际上需要

数百只蜘蛛才能产生

相当于一个雨滴的量 毒液

对我们来说非常珍贵

,一旦我们得到它,我们将它冷冻,然后我们

将它传递到一台机器中,该机器将

分离和纯化

毒液中的每一种化合物,我们

所说的微量我们

实际上正在谈论 大约

百万分之一升的化合物,但我们

可以将该化合物

在其自身体积

的水中稀释数千倍,然后针对

癌细胞或细菌等一系列有害物质进行测试,

这是

最令人兴奋的部分 我的工作开始了,

因为这是纯粹的科学赌博

,对我来说,这是拉斯维加斯的宝贝,

我们花了这么多小时这么多资源

这么多时间试图

准备好这些化合物,然后我们测试 m

,大多数时候什么都没有发生

,只是偶尔一次,只是偶尔

一次,我们

得到一种具有

绝对惊人效果的特殊化合物,这就是

头奖,当我说

实际上我应该

从我的 口袋

害怕 现在 很害怕 在那个小管子里 我

实际上有一只非常普通

的蜘蛛 那种蜘蛛你可以在你的

棚子里找到 你可以在你的

地下室找到 或者你可以在你的

下水道里找到 现在在你的厕所里

那只小蜘蛛碰巧能产生

非常强大的抗菌

化合物,它甚至能够杀死

那些

给我们带来很多麻烦的耐药细菌,

老实说,如果

我住在新的下水道里,我也会生产

抗生素,但这些细菌现在经常成为媒体头条。 这只小蜘蛛

实际上可能解决了一个非常

非常严重的问题,我们让你

在世界各地看到每天大约有

1,700 人死于

抗生素 微生物耐药性感染

将其乘以 365,每年死亡

人数达到惊人的 700,000 人

,因为

30、20 或

10 年前有效的抗生素无法杀死

非常常见的

病菌 抗生素

和制药行业

没有任何答案 实际上有任何武器可以

解决您在 30 年前看到的问题

您可以考虑每隔几年就会有 10 到 15

种新型抗生素

上市,您知道其中有多少上市吗?

过去五年的市场 - 现实情况是,如果

我们继续这样下去,我们将在几十年

后在感染面前完全无助,

就像我们在

90 年前发现青霉素之前一样,

所以你看到现实是我们 正在

与一个

比我们适应和进化得更快的隐形敌人作战,

在那场战争中,这只小蜘蛛可能

是最伟大的秘密武器之一。

百万分之一升的毒液

稀释 10,000 倍仍然能够

杀死大多数

对任何其他类型的抗生素有抗药性的细菌

每次重复这个实验都非常神奇 我

只是想知道这怎么可能还有

多少其他的可能性和秘密 所有的

兄弟姐妹都确实有什么样的

好产品

如果我们愿意看的话,我们真的可以发现所以当人们问我

是虫子真的是

治疗药物的未来我的答案是好的我

真的相信他们做了所有关键的

答案,我们需要 给自己

真正的方法来调查它们,所以

当你今晚晚些时候回家时,当

你看到

你自己角落里的蜘蛛时,不要压扁它,

只是看着它欣赏它并

记住它是一个绝对奇妙的

生物 纯粹是进化的产物

,也许有一天

我们会知道所有答案的那只蜘蛛将

掌握你自己生存的关键你看她

现在不再那么微不足道了 她

谢谢你

[鼓掌]