00:00:02
what do you guys think of when you think
00:00:04
of a scientist is it this or this or
00:00:10
maybe it's something more like this okay
00:00:14
probably not that one but the truth is
00:00:19
as much as STEM careers are pushed and
00:00:21
encouraged nowadays there is a serious
00:00:23
disconnect between future stem majors
00:00:25
and the people who are actually working
00:00:27
in these fields
00:00:28
I mean engineers aren't all just a bunch
00:00:30
of blokes and hardhat standing on a
00:00:31
cliff pointing out into the distance as
00:00:34
lucky as I am to go to a school that
00:00:36
exposes me to these career options as
00:00:39
early as possible we can't possibly
00:00:41
cover everything and we can't start
00:00:43
addressing the big questions without
00:00:45
first gaining some rudimentary knowledge
00:00:47
that's why today I've decided to talk to
00:00:49
you about some of the big questions in
00:00:51
biomedical engineering without any
00:00:53
rudimentary knowledge so here I go here
00:00:58
we are looking at this slide and
00:00:59
thinking I know what these words mean
00:01:00
separately but what do they mean
00:01:04
together so don't worry I won't
00:01:09
completely skip out on the rudimentary
00:01:10
knowledge part here's a very disgusting
00:01:13
and textbook II looking picture of our
00:01:16
cells membrane here I go explaining it
00:01:18
on the top over there in blue you see
00:01:21
the outside of the cell and on the
00:01:22
bottom here in orange you see the inside
00:01:24
of the cell
00:01:24
starting at the bottom of the picture
00:01:26
you'll see these orange fragments
00:01:28
they're called microfilaments and they
00:01:30
make up the internal skeleton of our
00:01:31
cell and hold all of our cell organelles
00:01:33
into place examples of organelles would
00:01:36
include the nucleus and the mitochondria
00:01:38
if you follow these up to the membrane
00:01:40
you'll see they are connected to
00:01:42
proteins which in turn are connected to
00:01:44
this fibrous material known as the
00:01:46
extracellular matrix what it boils down
00:01:49
to is that there is a physical indirect
00:01:52
path between the organelles of our cell
00:01:55
and the outside of our self this is
00:01:57
important because it allows cell to cell
00:01:59
communication between cells which are in
00:02:02
close proximity to one another without a
00:02:04
convoluted and energy inefficient method
00:02:06
such as hormone transport however this
00:02:09
system can also be taken advantage of
00:02:11
for new biomedical research research has
00:02:15
shown
00:02:16
vibrations can be detected by these
00:02:18
fibrous materials in the extracellular
00:02:19
matrix and follow the chain of command
00:02:22
in this diagram all the way down to the
00:02:24
cell's nucleus where we hold our DNA
00:02:27
there these vibrations can be
00:02:29
interpreted and be used to sir turn
00:02:32
certain genes on or off but what does
00:02:35
that even tell us before we answer that
00:02:37
question let's take a moment to talk
00:02:39
about stem cells stem cells are
00:02:43
unspecialized cells that exist in our
00:02:44
body they can either replicate and form
00:02:47
or stem cells as in the top of this
00:02:49
diagram or they can specialized to
00:02:52
become any of the over 200 different
00:02:54
types of cell in our body they
00:02:57
specialized by reacting to environmental
00:02:59
stimuli which tells them which genes to
00:03:01
code for to turn on or off in order to
00:03:04
become a specific cell so here's what we
00:03:07
know we know that vibrations can be
00:03:10
detected outside of the cell and be used
00:03:12
to turn certain genes on or off we also
00:03:15
know that stem cells specialize in
00:03:18
response to environmental conditions
00:03:20
which tell them which genes to turn on
00:03:22
or off therefore theoretically it can be
00:03:26
derived that finely tuned vibrations
00:03:29
that occur outside of the cell may be
00:03:31
used to deliberately specialized stem
00:03:33
cells now these stem cells can be used
00:03:37
for a variety of different reasons for a
00:03:38
variety of different applications the
00:03:41
most common of which nowadays is
00:03:42
regenerative tissues so if an organ is
00:03:45
damaged we can regenerate the part of
00:03:47
the organism that is damaged ambitious
00:03:50
research has shown that we might even be
00:03:52
able to replicate entire organs from
00:03:53
scratch other applications include
00:03:56
treating degenerative cardio vascular
00:03:58
and neurological conditions such as
00:04:00
Alzheimer's or Parkinson's
00:04:02
now stem cell research is a buzzword
00:04:05
that gets thrown around a lot nowadays
00:04:07
but it can sound a little bit gimmicky
00:04:08
especially when the implications of such
00:04:10
research are so often unexplored rest
00:04:14
assured there are actually great
00:04:15
achievements happening in this field
00:04:16
another such achievement refers to the
00:04:19
in Korea oh you always think it'll never
00:04:22
happen to you
00:04:27
another such achievement refers to the
00:04:29
inquiry of what are called cancer stem
00:04:31
cells or CSCS now I should clarify
00:04:34
cancer stem cells are not the same as
00:04:37
the stem cells I just mentioned they're
00:04:39
simply cancer cells which behave in a
00:04:41
similar manner to stem cells okay going
00:04:45
on one of the reasons why it's so
00:04:48
difficult to treat cancer is because one
00:04:50
single cancer cell can spawn a variety
00:04:53
variety of different cancer cells any of
00:04:55
which can mutate to resist current
00:04:57
treatment an example of such a cancer is
00:04:59
glioblastoma multiforme which is an
00:05:02
aggressive brain tumor glioblastoma can
00:05:05
have up to six variants of these sub
00:05:07
clones or different cancer species in a
00:05:09
single patient any one of these any one
00:05:13
of these sub clones could somehow resist
00:05:15
the current treatment or spread to an
00:05:17
area where it is no longer manageable or
00:05:19
worth the risk to treat so how is the
00:05:21
biomedical community responding to this
00:05:23
issue new targeted treatment aims to
00:05:26
seek out the origin CSC and target that
00:05:29
single cell without that cells presence
00:05:32
the rest of the tumor will not be able
00:05:34
to survive and will naturally degenerate
00:05:36
and while previous treatment what may
00:05:39
have been able to remove the majority of
00:05:40
a tumor if the cancer stem cell gets
00:05:43
left behind the tumor can regenerate and
00:05:46
form new sub clones for an organ for a
00:05:51
cancer in an organ as vulnerable as the
00:05:52
brain this is huge news radiotherapy and
00:05:55
chemotherapy can often have adverse
00:05:57
effects on the brain an operation is
00:06:00
strictly limited by which area of the
00:06:02
brain the cancer is localized to well
00:06:05
that's pretty scary right your body is
00:06:07
made up of over 30 trillion cells yet
00:06:09
somehow one single cell on a yellow
00:06:11
circle can wreak havoc over your entire
00:06:13
body and turn your life upside down
00:06:18
so moving on oh I'm so sorry
00:06:25
all right
00:06:35
okay acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a
00:06:37
different type of cancer which affects
00:06:39
your blood cells one of the reasons why
00:06:41
it's so difficult to combat cancer is
00:06:43
because the cancer cell receptors are so
00:06:46
similar to the receptors on your normal
00:06:48
body cells because they are derived from
00:06:49
your own DNA car t-cell therapy is a new
00:06:54
form of targeted therapy which aims to
00:06:56
improve upon your immune cells and make
00:06:59
them recognize the receptors on cancer
00:07:01
cells T cell T cell samples are taken
00:07:05
from the patient and then the DNA from
00:07:07
the T cells is reprogrammed to code for
00:07:10
new protein receptors which are able to
00:07:12
recognize the receptors on cancer cells
00:07:14
and as simple as mate as that may sound
00:07:17
your DNA can only code for 20 different
00:07:19
amino acids and while these amino acids
00:07:22
are able to combine and orient
00:07:23
themselves to form millions of different
00:07:25
proteins there is only there's still no
00:07:28
guarantee that the exact shape can be
00:07:31
exactly and precisely matched by the
00:07:33
proteins coded for by our own DNA the
00:07:36
only way to guarantee the production of
00:07:38
a receptor that matches the protein
00:07:40
receptor on a cancer cell is by
00:07:42
bioengineering new amino acids and
00:07:44
increasing the amount of proteins that
00:07:46
we can make our alphabet has 26 letters
00:07:50
with these 26 letters we were able to
00:07:52
create the 2,000 page oxford dictionary
00:07:55
and while while the dictionary is
00:07:58
incredibly long and complex there are
00:08:01
still some sounds and words that will
00:08:02
never exist in English despite being
00:08:04
able to exist in other languages the
00:08:07
only way to guarantee the existence of
00:08:09
such words is by adding new letters to
00:08:11
the alphabet the amino acid alphabet has
00:08:15
20 letters scientists have added 300
00:08:18
letters to the alphabet they simulate
00:08:21
these new amino acids on supercomputers
00:08:23
and then they use DNA printers to print
00:08:26
them out this new DNA is then
00:08:28
incorporated back into the host cells
00:08:30
and translated into new proteins which
00:08:32
are able to recognize the receptors on
00:08:34
cancer cells
00:08:35
thanks to car t-cell therapy five-year
00:08:38
survival rates for acute lymphoblastic
00:08:40
leukemia have gone up drastically and
00:08:42
nearly all patients for similar blood
00:08:44
cancers go into remission it was this
00:08:47
drive to discover how to say
00:08:48
large swaths of lives that initially
00:08:50
drew me towards biomechanical
00:08:52
engineering at the end of the day though
00:08:54
it's not the answers to these questions
00:08:56
that matter it's the questions that we
00:08:58
ask next it's why we asked them I
00:09:01
present these examples to you not as an
00:09:03
expert on the subject but simply as
00:09:05
someone who can't wait to see what we
00:09:06
discover next it's that spirit of
00:09:09
inquiry that we should all embody about
00:09:10
science it's the cashion to learn about
00:09:13
new science and technology and discover
00:09:15
how to better humanity because at the
00:09:19
end of the day when we like my science
00:09:25
education won't end when I get a 5 on
00:09:27
the AP exam or an A in my classes it'll
00:09:31
end when we run out of questions so keep
00:09:34
asking questions because the more
00:09:36
questions we ask and the more we wonder
00:09:39
the more we realize how much we have
00:09:41
left to learn all that and that this is
00:09:44
definitely not science
