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Advances in the regeneration of the human body in the 21st century.
Well, to be in my country, to share with you, my scientific work, is really an enormous
pleasure. Believe me, that all of you should be interested in this topic.
Its beneficial to you, so, pay attention.
ok.
Why is regeneration, or the formation of new tissue and organs, why is it important?
Its very simple: humans want to live for a long time, we want to live for a whole century
but we want to live a high quality life. This is a universal aspiration.
Science in the 20th century, was able to help medicine and extend our lifespan.
Now we live more. On average. We live more, but we don´t necessarily
live a high quality life. The world would be completely different if there were no blind
nor paralyzed people. But we don´t know how to regenerate the central nervous
system. This would be one of the important objectives of regenerative medicine.
Heart attacks kill more humans, than probably anything else.
Not only, do they kill humans, but they frequently reduce our quality of life
around the world.
Illnesses like parkinson´s and alzheimer's, of which we will probably see more of, now
that we can live a whole century.
So, they are devastating illnesses, not only for the patient, but also for the patient´s
family. Very costly.
Also, they require to learn how to regenerate the central nervous system.
My laboratory made the connection between regenerative medicine, technology,
and the auto-assembly of molecules. We were the pioneers of this field.
We were the first to make this connection.
Well, what is the technology? Most of you have probably heard, that it is the science,
as well as the use, of things that are very, very small. You can´t imagine how small.
The self-assembly of molecules, well this is something else. Biology works via
self-assembly of molecules. Everything self-assembles itself in biology.
We, the scientists, have the aspiration of doing this in artificial systems.
So, for example, my laboratory invented these structures. The ribbon, the mushroom,
this tablet, are groups of many molecules that are programed to self-assemble
in nano structures.
Where is the confluence of all of this, the nano technology, self-assembly,
and the regenerative medicine. This was our idea 10 years ago, give or take.
We wanted to develop a nano fiber, that basically mimics the architecture, the shape,
of the collagen fibers that are in our bodies, and that are in the extracellular space.
Here is the surface of a cell, here is the extracellular space, and here we have a
bunch of nano fibers. All of us do. We wanted to develop an artificial nano fiber
that can self-assemble in the space outside of the cells. And the purpose of
these nano fibers was to give them signals, signals so that the cells could do things
that they would not do spontaneously. That is regeneration. Because regeneration is not
spontaneous. It doesn't occur. To be able to... lets say, allow somebody paralyzed
to walk again, or to allow a blind person to see again, we must regenerate certain
types of neurons, and this requires special signals.
So imitating nature, we invented this system, and now it is well known in the
scientific community.
How do we do it? Here is...Sorry to those who flunked chemistry in high school or in
college...but anyway, briefly: we have molecules that have amino acids
and that have, for example this one has a tail that dislikes water. It hates water.
It is a hydrofobic tail, that is a good word.
On this surface, an incredible amount of signals appear for the cells. To say, look,
get with it, or do something to regenerate this body.
So for example, we have special programs to understand through computing, how to
design them, and how to make them carry the signals in the most effective way.
So, in this field, we must be well rounded. We must know chemistry, physics, biology,
We must know medicine, we must be engineers to develop technical apparatuses
in order to do our work. So it is an interdisciplinary field. That is the direction
of science all over the world, and of technology. Everything is mixing.
There will be a time when there won't be divisions between sciences.
All the engineers now a days, in the most famous universities, have chemists and
physicists as part of their faculty.
This demonstrates what is happening.
So, allow me to illustrate, very specifically, how we have utilized this to solve the
problem of trauma to the spinal cord.
There is an accident of any kind, very serious, currently there is no effective
treatment for trauma to the spinal cord. Lots of people have been trying to do so,
They insert stem cells, try these medicines, other proteins, there are
thousands upon thousands of articles in scientific literature, and nothing has worked.
So, we invented a fiber that carries a signal, that in biological language is IKVAV.
That signal, during growth, when we are learning, and our brain is developing,
biology uses that signal to convert neural stem cells into neurons, to create
connections of circuits in the brain. So we had the idea, how this occurs, making the
axons grow, maybe when the axons are cut in the spinal cord, if we placed these fibers
maybe the signal would make them grow. When we placed embryonic neural stem
cells, in contact with our nano fibers, what we found was that the neural mother cells
turned into, exclusively, neurons. And this is very important because when you conduct
this experiment, all sorts of cells are formed.
Including ones that are called astrocytes. They are also of the central nervous system.
Those are the ones that create a tremendous scar in the spinal cord after an
accident. And this is why people are paralyzed for ever. Because that scar does
not allow the axons of the neurons, the electric cables of the spinal cord, to
advance to the brain and reconnect with where they need to, in order for the person
to be fully functional.
So, when we found that our nano fibers don't enhance, don't create astrocytes,
We said, well, that means that when there is an accident in the spinal cord,
maybe the scar won't form.
So the axons are still alive, and the IKVAV signal will pull them so that they they grow,
and so they get to the brain.
That was the idea, and here is an animation, of our view of the therapy.
This is a needle, these are the axons of the spinal cord, they measure about one meter,
it's the tail of the neuron. The cell is in the brain, or the extremities, and the tail ascends
through the spinal cord, and can measure one meter.
The vision is, treatment via epidural injection, in the problematic area.
Here is the needle, It adds a liquid that carries the molecules that self-assembles.
The liquid is injected, when they reach the place where the axons are broken,
The nano fibers self-assemble, they are designed to do so, it would take a long time
to explain the details, but basically, they self-assemble in this region of the spinal cord
and look at what happens.
This is a mouse, paralyzed, that drags his feet. He is completely paralyzed.
If we inject these molecules that self-assemble in the spinal cord, after 6-8 weeks
the mouse walks again. With only one treatment, 24 hours after the trauma.
This can be used in other ways. We have different nano fibers, because we are
interested in curing Parkinson's. So what we do is, inject the molecules that
self-assemble in nano fibers. Different ones, we inject them directly into the brain.
You may think that this is bizarre, to inject somebody's brain,
neurosurgeons do this all the time in hospitals for other treatments.
So this can indeed be performed, no problem.
So what we do is take the model animal and give it a drug called Reserpine,
This drug causes the symptoms of Parkinson's in humans that have the illness.
See what happens, this is a mouse, we can see here, it is a parkinsonic mouse.
OK. This is the parkinsonic mouse. It shakes, and it has all the symptoms that humans
have in Parkinson's. They are depressed. They don't eat. They die, 8 days after
developing the symptoms or Parkinson's.
There are three parkinsonic animals here, now I will show you the difference between
a parkinsonic mouse, and a healthy mouse. Here it is. This is the healthy mouse, and this
is the parkinsonic mouse. Shakes, depressed, doesn't eat, doesn't have motor
skills. This is the mouse, 150 days after treatment, looses the symptoms of
Parkinson's. This has been something we have reached in the last 6 months in the lab.
This small defect of the knee, will make your life miserable. You will have to take
painkillers, you will have to...you shouldn't run so much. why not swim? it protects
the cartilage. The cartilage is a very thin layer, if you loose it, it will not return.
What surgeons do now a days, when there is a defect like this, they help patients
this way: they remove the cartilage, here you can see the defect, they remove the
cartilage, and you can see the bone, that is below. They take a drill,
and they drill holes in the bone. This procedure is done every day in hospitals
around the world. The idea here is that the blood that escapes when you create the
holes in the bone, carries the stem cells and the proteins that are needed to
regenerate the tissue, this does not work. It doesn't work. People way thousands upon
thousands of dollars for this surgery, and what grows here in this space is a tissue,
that sometimes isn't even cartilage, and sometimes is bad cartilage. It is not high
quality, and the patient is not cured.
What we invented recently was a special nano fiber that has these hairs on the surface
and these hairs attract, the appropriate stem cells and proteins, so that they
turn into cartilage cells and create cartilage.
This picture you see here, there used to be holes here. Can you see them? We did this
in rabbits. here are the holes, and here is the perfect cartilage that was regenerated
12 weeks later.
This picture is a histological analysis, as it is known in biology, and this red part here
indicates that the cartilage is authentic and has the native structure of cartilage.
We just published this, less than one month ago, in the proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. And we are working with large companies to be able to go to the
FDA and request permission to test on humans. Any volunteers over here?
Email me. This is my research team. They are young people, the youngest are 21, 22.
The eldest is about thirty. They are incredibly talented. They work saturdays,
in the lab at 2 in the morning, you can find somebody working, they are totally devoted
and don't have much time for facebook. OK? Believe me.
They are dedicated to what they do, they are ambitious, and of course, they do all the
work. They come from around the world. Korea, China, France, Israel, Japan, they
come from everywhere to my lab.
They work, and I am the director of the orchestra. I conduct the orchestra and travel
the world speaking of their work. Indeed, I am very grateful for all their efforts.
I think... now to close the presentation... It seems to me, it seems, given that Costa Rica
is a country that has educational tradition, a country that shows military aversion,
a country where people like to be because of its beauty. It is also a country, in my
opinion, that has incredible ambition of having high quality of life.
With all of these elements, what I would like, at some point in this century,
is for Costa Rica to find a new path, utilizing, in a creative way that nobody had thought
of, a different way, an exemplary way. Promote the development of the artistic talents,
the scientific talents, and the technological talents. This will impact not only the
wellbeing of it's inhabitants, but also the rest of the world.
Thank you very much.