She went to see the doctor and they told her it was a normal injury

她去看醫生，醫生告訴他對於一位網球老手來說

for someone who had been playing tennis for almost 30 years.

這是正常的運動傷害

They recommended that she do some therapy

醫生建議她做個手術

But after a while she wasn't feeling better, so the doctors decided to do further tests.

但術後情況沒有好轉，醫生決定做更進一步的檢查

They did an x-ray and discovered an injury in her lungs,

照X光時，發現我阿姨的肺部受傷了

and at the time they thought that the injury was a strain in the muscles and tendons between her ribs,

那時他們認為這個損傷只是肋骨間的肌肉和肌腱過度拉傷

but after a few weeks of treatment, again her health wasn't getting any better.

但療程過了兩三週，她的健康仍然沒有好轉

So finally, they decided to do a biopsy, and two weeks later, the results of the biopsy came back.

最後，醫生決定進行切片檢查法，兩週後，檢驗報告出爐

It was stage 3 lung cancer.

我阿姨得到肺癌第三期

Her lifestyle was almost free of risk.

她的生活非常正常

She never smoked a cigarette, she never drank alcohol, and she had been playing sports for almost half her life

不抽菸、不酗酒，而且她人生有一半的時間都在運動

Perhaps, that is why it took them almost six months to get her properly diagnosed.

或許這就是為什麼醫生要花半年才找得出病因吧

My story might be, unfortunately, familiar to most of you.

我說的故事，或許在座大多數人都有同感

One out of three people sitting in this audience will be diagnosed with some type of cancer

三分之一的人都會得到不同類型的癌症

and one out of four will die because of it. Not only did that cancer diagnosis change the life of our family,

四分之一的人會死於癌症，癌症的診斷結果不只會影響家庭

but that process of going back and forth with new tests, different doctors describing symptoms

來來回回所做的各種檢查、醫生拋出的各種疾病徵狀

discarding diseases over and over, was stressful and frustrating, especially for my aunt.

更讓我阿姨被壓力壓得意志全失

And that is the way cancer diagnosis has been done since the beginning of history.

但這就是治療癌症的唯一方法

We have 21st-century medical treatments and drugs to treat cancer,

我們有21世紀的醫療技術和藥品可以治療癌症

but we still have 20th-century procedures and processes for diagnosis, if any.

但我們的診斷程序仍停留在20世紀

Today, most of us have to wait for symptoms to indicate that something is wrong.

今天，大多數人等到症狀發生後，才知道身體出狀況了

Today, the majority of people still don't have access to early cancer detection methods

今天，即使我們知道提早發現癌症是治療癌症的靈丹妙藥

even though we know that catching cancer early is basically the closest thing we have to a silver bullet cure against it.

大多數人還是沒有機會及早接受癌症早期篩檢

We know that we can change this in our lifetime, and that is why my team and I have decided to begin this journey

我們知道在有限的生命中，可以扭轉結果，所以我和我的團隊決定要著手研究

This journey to try to make cancer detection at the early stages

這項研究主要針對癌症早期篩檢

And monitoring the appropriate response at the molecular level

監控該等級的分子要

easier, cheaper, smarter and more accessible than ever before.

比之前更簡單、更便宜、更可觀，而且更容易獲得

The context, of course, is that we're living at a time where technology is disrupting our present at exponential rates

當然，研究內容不外乎就是科技混亂了

and the biological realm is no exception.

人類生活的指數率和生物界

It is said today that biotech is advancing at least six times faster than the growth rate of the processing power of computers.

聽說現今生物技術的處理能力已經超越電腦六倍了

But progress in biotech is not only being accelerated, it is also being democratized.

生物技術不斷進步的同時，更被社會大眾所接受

Just as personal computers or the Internet or smartphones leveled the playing field for entrepreneurship

就像對有企業家精神的政治或教育來說，個人電腦、網路或智慧型手機就是個公平競爭的地方

politics or education, recent advances have leveled it up for biotech progress as well

現今的進步也提讓生物技術進步了

and that is allowing multidisciplinary teams like ours to try to tackle and look at these problems with new approaches.

而那讓各種不同領域的團隊想要嘗試看看，並找出新的解決辦法

We are a team of scientists and

我們的團隊是由科學家和

technologists from Chile, Panama, Mexico, Israel and Greece,

科學技術人員組成，大家分別從智利、巴拿馬、墨西哥、以色列和希臘等六個國家前來

and based on recent scientific discoveries, we believe that we have found a reliable and accurate way of detecting several types of cancer

以現今科技發現的東西為基礎，我們相信可以找到準確且可依賴的方法，讓我們在早期的血液樣本中

at the very early stages through a blood sample.

發現不同類型的癌症

We do it by detecting a set of very small molecules that circulate freely in our blood called microRNAs.

我們發現一套非常微小的分子可以自然循環血液，它叫做微RNA

To explain what microRNAs are and their important role in cancer, I need to start with proteins

為了向各位解釋微RNA是什麼，這些分子對癌症又有什麼助益，我先從蛋白質談起

because when cancer is present in our body, protein modification is observed in all cancerous cells

我們得到癌症時，所有癌細胞都會讓蛋白質變異

As you might know, proteins are large biological molecules that perform different functions within our body

就你所知，在我們的身體中，蛋白質是個身兼多職的巨大生物分子

Like catalyzing metabolic reactions or responding to stimuli or replicating DNA,

例如：加速新陳代謝、催化反應或複製DNA

but before a protein is expressed or produced, relevant parts of its genetic code present in the DNA are copied into the messenger RNA

但還製造蛋白質前，DNA會把部分相似的基因密碼複製給訊息RNA

so this messenger RNA has instructions on how to build a specific protein

然後訊息RNA會命令完成一個特別的蛋白質

and potentially it can build hundreds of proteins,

而它可以製造出上百個蛋白質

but the one that tells them when to build them and how many to build are microRNAs.

但只有微RNA會指示它們什麼時候製造、該製造多少個蛋白質

So microRNAs are small molecules that regulate gene expression.

所以微RNA是一種管理基因表現的微小分子

Unlike DNA, which is mainly fixed, microRNAs can vary depending on internal and environmental conditions at any given time

不像DNA主要進行修復工程，微RNA在任何時間，都會隨內部及環境情況而改變

telling us which genes are actively expressed at that particular moment.

告訴我們哪個基因會在哪個時間點表現活躍

And that is what makes microRNAs such a promising biomarker for cancer

這就是為什麼微RNA是發現癌症最好生物標誌的原因

because as you know, cancer is a disease of altered gene expression.

因為癌症會改變基因的表現方式

It is the uncontrolled regulation of genes.

它是不受約束的基因

Another important thing to consider is that no two cancers are the same, but at the microRNA level, there are patterns.

另外，每一種癌症的呈現方式都不一樣，但在微RNA中，它們卻是同樣的模式

Several scientific studies have shown that abnormal microRNA expression levels varies

少數科學研究都顯示異常的微RNA表現的程度有所不同

and creates a unique, specific pattern for each type of cancer,

而且為不同型態的癌症創造一個獨特的表現方式

even at the early stages, reflecting the progression of the disease,

甚至在發病初期，影響疾病的進展

and whether it's responding to medication or in remission, making microRNAs a perfect, highly sensitive biomarker

不論是藥物反應或是減輕疼痛，都是微RNA成為高靈敏度生物標誌的原因

However, the problem with microRNAs is that we cannot use existing DNA-based technology to detect them in a reliable way,

然而，微RNA的問題就是我們無法用現存的DNA科技來觀察它們

because they are very short sequences of nucleotides, much smaller than DNA.

因為它們缺少一系列的核甘酸，比DNA還小

And also, all microRNAs are very similar to each other, with just tiny differences.

而且所有微RNA都非常相似，只有一小點差異

So imagine trying to differentiate two molecules, extremely similar, extremely small.

所以想像試著要區別兩種極度相似、極度微小的分子

We believe that we have found a way to do so, and this is the first time that we've shown it in public.

我們相信會找出方法，而今天是第一次公開讓大家知道

Let me do a demonstration.

我現在來示範一下

Imagine that next time you go to your doctor and do your next standard blood test

想像下次你去看醫生，醫生幫你抽血時

a lab technician extracts a total RNA, which is quite simple today, and puts it in a standard 96-well plate like this one.

一個非常普遍的儀器會採集RNA，並把RNA放進standard 96-well plate，就像我手上拿的這個一樣

Each well of these plates has specific biochemistry that we assign,

每一個薄板上都有生物化學成分

that is looking for a specific microRNA, acting like a trap that closes only when the microRNA is present in the sample,

那是為了找到特定的微RNA，它就像陷阱一樣，微RNA一出現，這種物化學就關上大門

and when it does, it will shine with green color.

它一關上大門，就會閃綠光

To run the reaction, you put the plate inside a device like this one, and then you can put your smartphone on top of it.

為了要進行反應，你要把薄板放進這個裝置，然後把智慧型手機放在上面

If we can have a camera here so you can see my screen.

如果有照相機，你就可以看到我的螢幕

A smartphone is a connected computer and it's also a camera, good enough for our purpose.

我的智慧型手機已經連上電腦，它現在也是一個照相機了，非常好

The smartphone is taking pictures, and when the reaction is over, it will send the pictures to our online database for processing and interpretation.

手機開始照相了，反應結束時，它會寄圖片到線上數據庫，完成步驟並解釋數據

This entire process lasts around 60 minutes, but when the process is over,

這個步驟會持續大約60秒，但步驟結束時，

wells that shine are matched with the specific microRNAs and analyzed in terms of how much and how fast they shine.

閃爍的綠光和特定的微RNA相符後，開始分析多快會閃爍一次綠光

And then, when this entire process is over, this is what happens.

接著，整個過程結束後，重頭戲就來了

This chart is showing the specific microRNAs present in this sample and how they reacted over time.

這個圖表顯示了微RNA在這個樣本中的呈現方式，還有在這段時間內，他們如何反應

Then, if we take this specific pattern of microRNA of this person's samples

如果我們從樣本中移除這個特定的微RNA

and compare it with existing scientific documentation that correlates microRNA patterns with a specific presence of a disease,

比較現有的科學文獻，確實和某種疾病的特定微RNA相符

this is how pancreatic cancer looks like. This inside is a real sample where we just detected pancreatic cancer.

這是胰臟癌的呈現方式，而儀器內是我們發現的胰臟癌樣本

(Applause)

(鼓掌)

Another important aspect of this approach is the gathering and mining of data in the cloud,

另外，在雲端收集和採集數據也很重要

so we can get results in real time and analyze them with our contextual information

我們可確實可以得到結果，並用文字資訊分析它們

If we want to better understand and decode diseases like cancer, we need to stop treating them as acute, isolated episodes,

如果我們想要更進一步了解並譯解疾病，像是癌症，我們就不能把它們看成是唯一的插曲

and consider and measure everything that affects our health on a permanent basis.

要考慮並衡量每一個會影響人體健康的準則

This entire platform is a working prototype. It uses state-of-the-art molecular biology,

這個平台是實驗的典範，它運用最先進的分子生物學、

a low-cost, 3D-printed device, and data science to try to tackle one of humanity's toughest challenges.

一台廉價的3D列印機及數據科學來應付人類最困難的挑戰

Since we believe early cancer detection should really be democratized,

我們相信癌症早療應該要大眾化

this entire solution costs at least 50 times less than current available methods,

我們進行這項技術不到50次就成功了，比現有可用的方法還好

and we know that the community can help us accelerate this even more, so we're making the design of the device open-source.

而且我們知道社會大眾為幫我們提倡癌症早療，所以這個儀器，我們提供共享資源的服務

(Applause)

(鼓掌)

Let me say very clearly that we are at the very early stages,

我很清楚地表明，我們仍在實驗初期

but so far, we have been able to successfully identify the microRNA pattern of pancreatic cancer

但目前為止，我們很成功地證明出胰臟癌、

lung cancer, breast cancer and hepatic cancer.

肺癌、乳癌及肝癌的微RNA樣貌

And currently, we're doing a clinical trial in collaboration with the German Cancer Research Center with 200 women for breast cancer.

現在，我們和德國癌症研究中心一起合作，為200位乳癌患者進行臨床試驗

(Applause)

(鼓掌)

This is the single non-invasive, accurate and affordable test that has the potential

這是唯一非侵入性、精確卻又負擔起的試驗

to dramatically change how cancer procedures and diagnostics have been done.

它可以改變癌症過去的診斷方法及手續

Since we're looking for the microRNA patterns in your blood at any given time,

因為我們隨時都在找與你的血液相符的微RNA

you don't need to know which cancer you're looking for.

你不需要知道你在找哪一種癌症

You don't need to have any symptoms. You only need one milliliter of blood and a relatively simple array of tools.

你也不需要有任何症狀，唯一需要的就是1毫升的血液和一系列相關的工具

Today, cancer detection happens mainly when symptoms appear.

今天，我們通常發現癌症是因為有症狀發生

That is, at stage 3 or 4, and I believe that is too late.

而那都已經是癌症末期了，我相信那為時已晚

It is too expensive for our families. It is too expensive for humanity.

我們的家人要花一大筆錢來治療、人類要花一大筆錢來治療

We cannot lose the war against cancer.

我們不能這樣就被癌症打敗

It not only costs us billions of dollars, but it also costs us the people we love.

我們要花十億元治療癌症，但同時也消費了我們最愛的人

Today, my aunt, she's fighting bravely and going through this process with a very positive attitude.

今天，我的阿姨勇敢地打擊癌症，目前病情已經好轉

However, I want fights like this to become very rare.

然而，我還是希望用這種方式打擊癌症的人越少越好

I want to see the day when cancer is treated easily because it can be routinely diagnosed at the very early stages,

我希望將來有一天，醫治癌症是件容易的事，因為病人都能在發病初期診斷出來

and I'm certain that in the very near future, because of this and other breakthroughs that we are seeing every day in the life sciences,

而且我確信在未來，這些每天都看得到的科技會越來越發達

the way we see cancer will radically change.

如此一來，我們就能用不同的角度來看待癌症

It will give us the chance of detecting it early, understanding it better, and finding a cure.

我們有機會在發病初期監測癌症的發展，掌握它，並找到治療方法

Thank you very much.

謝謝大家