what is inside your dental plaque?

各位是否想過，

Probably not, but people like me do.

在各位的牙菌斑裡藏著什麼?

I'm an archeological geneticist

可能沒有，但像我一樣的人會想這個問題。

at the Center for Evolutionary Medicine

我是一位考古學遺傳學家。

at the University of Zurich,

我任職於蘇黎世大學的

and I study the origins and evolution of human health and disease

醫藥發展中心

by conducting genetic research

我針對古人類骨骼和木乃伊遺骸

on the skeletal and mummified remains of ancient humans.

進行基因研究

And through this work, I hope to better understand

了解人類健康和疾病的起源和演化

the evolutionary vulnerabilities of our bodies,

透過此研究，我希望能更加了解

so that we can improve

我們的身體在進化上缺陷

and better manage our health in the future.

我們也得以改善

There are different ways to approach evolutionary medicine,

並在未來管理我們的健康狀況。

and one way is to extract human DNA

要改進研發醫藥有各種不同的方法

from ancient bones.

其中一種就是從骨骼化石中

And from these extracts,

提取人類的DNA

we can reconstruct the human genome at different points in time

從這些提取出的DNA

and look for changes that might be related to adaptations,

我們可以重建不同時期的人類的基因組

risk factors and inherited diseases.

並尋找可能因適應而產生的變化

But this is only one half of the story.

風險因素和遺傳疾病。

The most important health challenges today

但這只是故事的其中一部份。

are not caused by simple mutations in our genome,

今天對於健康最大的挑戰

but rather result from a complex and dynamic interplay

並非我們基因組裡產生的簡單基因突變，

between genetic variation,

而是遺傳變異，飲食，

diet, microbes and parasites

微生物，寄生蟲

and our immune response.

和我們的免疫系統之間

All of these diseases

所造成複雜的和動態的相互作用。

have a strong evolutionary component

這所有的疾病

that directly relates to the fact

有很強的進化因子。

that we live today in a very different environment

這直接和一個事實有關，

than the ones in which our bodies evolved.

就是我們生活在一個和我們身體相比，

And in order to understand these diseases,

是一個更加不同的環境中。

we need to move past studies of the human genome alone

為了要了解這些疾病，

and towards a more holistic approach

我們需要將過去研究人類基因組，

to human health in the past.

改為更加全方位的去研究

But there are a lot of challenges for this.

過去的人類健康情況。

And first of all, what do we even study?

但這是相當大的挑戰

Skeletons are ubiquitous; they're found all over the place.

首先，我們要研究什麼？

But of course, all of the soft tissue has decomposed,

骨頭無所不在，到處都能發現。

and the skeleton itself

當然，所有的軟組織都被分解掉了；

has limited health information.

而骨頭本身，

Mummies are a great source of information,

健康的資訊有限。

except that they're really geographically limited

木乃伊是很好的資料來源，

and limited in time as well.

但他們有地域限制，

Coprolites are fossilized human feces,

和時間上的限制。

and they're actually extremely interesting.

糞化石是人類糞便化石，

You can learn a lot about ancient diet and intestinal disease,

它們實際上是非常有趣。

but they are very rare.

你可以從中學到很多關於古代飲食和腸道疾病，

(Laughter)

但他們非常罕見。

So to address this problem,

(笑聲)

I put together a team of international researchers

為了解決此問題，

in Switzerland, Denmark and the U.K.

我組了一個國際團隊。

to study a very poorly studied, little known material

有來自瑞士、丹麥和英國的研究員，

that's found on people everywhere.

研究幾乎沒人研究，也鮮為人知的物質。

It's a type of fossilized dental plaque

此物質能在任何人身上找到

that is called officially dental calculus.

那是牙菌斑化石，

Many of you may know it by the term tartar.

正常也被稱為牙結石。

It's what the dentist cleans off your teeth

很多人可能都知道那是長期牙垢。

every time that you go in for a visit.

那也是各位每次去看牙醫，

And in a typical dentistry visit,

牙醫會幫各位清洗掉的東西。

you may have about 15 to 30 milligrams removed.

在典型的牙醫診斷中，

But in ancient times before tooth brushing,

你可能有大約15至30毫克的牙結石會被清理掉。

up to 600 milligrams might have built up on the teeth

但在古代有刷牙習慣之前，

over a lifetime.

一個人一輩子，大約有高達600毫克的牙結石

And what's really important about dental calculus

可能會附著在牙齒上。

is that it fossilizes just like the rest of the skeleton,

而牙結石的重要性

it's abundant in quantity before the present day

在於它就像留下來的骨架化石的其餘部分。

and it's ubiquitous worldwide.

它是目前數量上最豐富的，

We find it in every population around the world at all time periods

而且無所不在。

going back tens of thousands of years.

我們能在數萬年前的每一個時期

And we even find it in neanderthals and animals.

世界各地各種族群的人身上找到。

And so previous studies

我們甚至也在尼安德特人與動物身上找到。

had only focused on microscopy.

先前的研究，

They'd looked at dental calculus under a microscope,

只聚焦顯微鏡下的事物。

and what they had found was things like pollen

研究員透過顯微鏡觀看牙結石，

and plant starches,

他們發現了類似花粉的東西

and they'd found muscle cells from animal meats

和植物澱粉；

and bacteria.

他們也發現動物肉類中的肌肉細胞，

And so what my team of researchers, what we wanted to do,

還有細菌。

is say, can we apply

所以我的研究團隊想做的事，

genetic and proteomic technology

是我們能否運用

to go after DNA and proteins,

基因和蛋白質技術

and from this can we get better taxonomic resolution

追蹤DNA和蛋白質，

to really understand what's going on?

從結果中得出更好的分類方法，

And what we found

進而了解其中奧妙。

is that we can find many commensal and pathogenic bacteria

我們得到的結果是

that inhabited the nasal passages and mouth.

找到許多共生和致病的細菌

We also have found immune proteins

生活在鼻腔和口腔裡。

related to infection and inflammation

我們還發現

and proteins and DNA related to diet.

和感染及發炎症狀有關的免疫蛋白，

But what was surprising to us, and also quite exciting,

還有與飲食有關的蛋白質和DNA。

is we also found bacteria

但令我們驚訝還有相當興奮的是

that normally inhabit upper respiratory systems.

我們發現了

So it gives us virtual access to the lungs,

細菌通常生活在上呼吸道系統。

which is where many important diseases reside.

因此，這給了我們到肺部的模擬路徑，

And we also found bacteria

這是許多重要疾病的病源。

that normally inhabit the gut.

我們也發現了

And so we can also now virtually gain access

細菌通常生活在腸道。

to this even more distant organ system

所以我們幾乎也可以了解

that, from the skeleton alone,

這更遙遠的器官系統。

has long decomposed.

這和骨骼相比，

And so by applying ancient DNA sequencing

是早已分解的部分。

and protein mass spectrometry technologies

利用古代DNA測序

to ancient dental calculus,

和蛋白質質譜技術，

we can generate immense quantities of data

應用在研究古老的牙結石，

that then we can use to begin to reconstruct a detailed picture

我們可以得到大量的數據。

of the dynamic interplay

然後我們就可以開始重建出

between diet, infection and immunity

數千年前

thousands of years ago.

飲食，感染和免疫

So what started out as an idea,

動態相互作用的詳細的圖片。

is now being implemented

而我們最初由概念，

to churn out millions of sequences

到現在可以實行這概念，

that we can use to investigate

得到很多的結論，

the long-term evolutionary history of human health and disease,

我們可以用來探討

right down to the genetic code of individual pathogens.

在長期的進化的過程中人類的健康和疾病，

And from this information

數百萬的個別病原體的遺傳序列代碼。

we can learn about how pathogens evolve

從此份資料中，

and also why they continue to make us sick.

我們可以了解致病菌的進化方式，

And I hope I have convinced you

還有了解為何致病菌能持續讓我們生病。

of the value of dental calculus.

另外我也希望可以說服各位

And as a final parting thought,

關於牙結石的重要性。

on behalf of future archeologists,

最後在此

I would like to ask you to please think twice

我代表對未來的考古學家，

before you go home and brush your teeth.

和各位說在各位回家刷牙前

(Applause)

請先三思。

Thank you.

(掌聲)

(Applause)

謝謝各位。