0:00:01.000,0:00:03.000 I'm here today to share with you 0:00:03.000,0:00:05.000 an extraordinary journey - 0:00:05.000,0:00:08.000 extraordinarily rewarding journey,[br]actually - 0:00:08.000,0:00:10.000 which brought me into 0:00:10.000,0:00:12.000 training rats 0:00:12.000,0:00:14.000 to save human lives 0:00:14.000,0:00:16.000 by detecting landmines 0:00:16.000,0:00:18.000 and tuberculosis. 0:00:18.000,0:00:21.000 As a child, I had two passions. 0:00:21.000,0:00:24.000 One was a passion for rodents. 0:00:24.000,0:00:26.000 I had all kinds of rats, 0:00:26.000,0:00:28.000 mice, hamsters, 0:00:28.000,0:00:30.000 gerbils, squirrels. 0:00:30.000,0:00:33.000 You name it, I bred it, and I sold them to pet shops. 0:00:33.000,0:00:35.000 (Laughter) 0:00:35.000,0:00:38.000 I also had a passion for Africa. 0:00:38.000,0:00:40.000 Growing up in a multicultural environment, 0:00:40.000,0:00:42.000 we had African students in the house, 0:00:42.000,0:00:44.000 and I learned about their stories, 0:00:44.000,0:00:46.000 so different backgrounds, 0:00:46.000,0:00:49.000 dependency on imported know-how, 0:00:49.000,0:00:51.000 goods, services, 0:00:51.000,0:00:54.000 exuberant cultural diversity. 0:00:54.000,0:00:56.000 Africa was truly fascinating for me. 0:00:56.000,0:00:58.000 I became an industrial engineer, 0:00:58.000,0:01:00.000 engineer in product development, 0:01:00.000,0:01:03.000 and I focused on appropriate detection technologies, 0:01:03.000,0:01:05.000 actually the first appropriate technologies 0:01:05.000,0:01:08.000 for developing countries. 0:01:08.000,0:01:10.000 I started working in the industry, 0:01:10.000,0:01:12.000 but I wasn't really happy to contribute 0:01:12.000,0:01:15.000 to a material consumer society 0:01:15.000,0:01:18.000 in a linear, extracting 0:01:18.000,0:01:20.000 and manufacturing mode. 0:01:20.000,0:01:22.000 I quit my job to focus on the real world problem: 0:01:22.000,0:01:25.000 landmines. 0:01:25.000,0:01:28.000 We're talking '95 now. 0:01:28.000,0:01:31.000 Princess Diana is announcing on TV 0:01:31.000,0:01:33.000 that landmines form a structural barrier 0:01:33.000,0:01:36.000 to any development, which is really true. 0:01:36.000,0:01:38.000 As long as these devices are there, 0:01:38.000,0:01:40.000 or there is suspicion of landmines, 0:01:40.000,0:01:42.000 you can't really enter into the land. 0:01:42.000,0:01:44.000 Actually, there was an appeal worldwide 0:01:44.000,0:01:47.000 for new detectors 0:01:47.000,0:01:49.000 sustainable in the environments 0:01:49.000,0:01:51.000 where they're needed to produce, 0:01:51.000,0:01:53.000 which is mainly in the developing world. 0:01:53.000,0:01:55.000 We chose rats. 0:01:55.000,0:01:57.000 Why would you choose rats? 0:01:57.000,0:01:59.000 Because, aren't they vermin? 0:01:59.000,0:02:01.000 Well, actually rats are, 0:02:01.000,0:02:03.000 in contrary to what most people think about them, 0:02:03.000,0:02:07.000 rats are highly sociable creatures. 0:02:07.000,0:02:10.000 And actually, our product -- what you see here. 0:02:10.000,0:02:12.000 There's a target somewhere here. 0:02:12.000,0:02:14.000 You see an operator, a trained African 0:02:14.000,0:02:16.000 with his rats in front 0:02:16.000,0:02:18.000 who actually are left and right. 0:02:18.000,0:02:20.000 There, the animal finds a mine. 0:02:20.000,0:02:22.000 It scratches on the soil. 0:02:22.000,0:02:25.000 And the animal comes back for a food reward. 0:02:25.000,0:02:27.000 Very, very simple. 0:02:27.000,0:02:30.000 Very sustainable in this environment. 0:02:30.000,0:02:33.000 Here, the animal gets its food reward. 0:02:33.000,0:02:35.000 And that's how it works. 0:02:35.000,0:02:37.000 Very, very simple. 0:02:37.000,0:02:39.000 Now why would you use rats? 0:02:39.000,0:02:41.000 Rats have been used since the '50s last century, 0:02:41.000,0:02:44.000 in all kinds of experiments. 0:02:44.000,0:02:47.000 Rats have more genetic material 0:02:47.000,0:02:49.000 allocated to olfaction 0:02:49.000,0:02:51.000 than any other mammal species. 0:02:51.000,0:02:54.000 They're extremely sensitive to smell. 0:02:54.000,0:02:57.000 Moreover, they have the mechanisms to map all these smells 0:02:57.000,0:03:00.000 and to communicate about it. 0:03:00.000,0:03:02.000 Now how do we communicate with rats? 0:03:02.000,0:03:05.000 Well don't talk rat, 0:03:05.000,0:03:07.000 but we have a clicker, 0:03:07.000,0:03:09.000 a standard method for animal training, 0:03:09.000,0:03:11.000 which you see there. 0:03:11.000,0:03:14.000 A clicker, which makes a particular sound 0:03:14.000,0:03:17.000 with which you can reinforce particular behaviors. 0:03:17.000,0:03:20.000 First of all, we associate the click sound with a food reward, 0:03:20.000,0:03:23.000 which is smashed banana and peanuts together in a syringe. 0:03:24.000,0:03:26.000 Once the animal knows click, food, 0:03:26.000,0:03:28.000 click, food, click, food -- 0:03:28.000,0:03:30.000 so click is food -- 0:03:30.000,0:03:32.000 we bring it in a cage with a hole, 0:03:32.000,0:03:34.000 and actually the animal learns 0:03:34.000,0:03:36.000 to stick the nose in the hole 0:03:36.000,0:03:38.000 under which a target scent is placed, 0:03:38.000,0:03:40.000 and to do that for five seconds -- 0:03:40.000,0:03:42.000 five seconds, which is long for a rat. 0:03:42.000,0:03:45.000 Once the animal knows this, we make the task a bit more difficult. 0:03:45.000,0:03:48.000 It learns how to find the target smell 0:03:48.000,0:03:51.000 in a cage with several holes, up to 10 holes. 0:03:51.000,0:03:53.000 Then the animal learns 0:03:53.000,0:03:55.000 to walk on a leash in the open 0:03:55.000,0:03:57.000 and find targets. 0:03:57.000,0:04:00.000 In the next step, animals learn 0:04:00.000,0:04:02.000 to find real mines in real minefields. 0:04:02.000,0:04:05.000 They are tested and accredited 0:04:05.000,0:04:07.000 according to International Mine Action Standards, 0:04:07.000,0:04:10.000 just like dogs have to pass a test. 0:04:10.000,0:04:12.000 This consists of 400 square meters. 0:04:12.000,0:04:15.000 There's a number of mines 0:04:15.000,0:04:17.000 placed blindly, 0:04:17.000,0:04:20.000 and the team of trainer and their rat 0:04:20.000,0:04:23.000 have to find all the targets. 0:04:24.000,0:04:27.000 If the animal does that, it gets a license 0:04:27.000,0:04:29.000 as an accredited animal 0:04:29.000,0:04:31.000 to be operational in the field -- 0:04:31.000,0:04:33.000 just like dogs, by the way. 0:04:33.000,0:04:35.000 Maybe one slight difference: 0:04:35.000,0:04:38.000 we can train rats at a fifth of the price 0:04:38.000,0:04:40.000 of training the mining dog. 0:04:40.000,0:04:42.000 This is our team in Mozambique: 0:04:42.000,0:04:44.000 one Tanzanian trainer, 0:04:44.000,0:04:46.000 who transfers the skills 0:04:46.000,0:04:48.000 to these three Mozambican fellows. 0:04:48.000,0:04:51.000 And you should see the pride in the eyes of these people. 0:04:51.000,0:04:53.000 They have a skill, 0:04:53.000,0:04:55.000 which makes them much less dependent 0:04:55.000,0:04:57.000 on foreign aid. 0:04:57.000,0:05:00.000 Moreover, this small team 0:05:00.000,0:05:03.000 together with, of course, you need the heavy vehicles 0:05:03.000,0:05:06.000 and the manual de-miners to follow-up. 0:05:06.000,0:05:09.000 But with this small investment in a rat capacity, 0:05:09.000,0:05:12.000 we have demonstrated in Mozambique 0:05:12.000,0:05:15.000 that we can reduce the cost-price per square meter 0:05:15.000,0:05:17.000 up to 60 percent 0:05:17.000,0:05:19.000 of what is currently normal -- 0:05:19.000,0:05:21.000 two dollars per square meter, we do it at $1.18, 0:05:21.000,0:05:23.000 and we can still bring that price down. 0:05:23.000,0:05:25.000 Question of scale. 0:05:25.000,0:05:27.000 If you can bring in more rats, 0:05:27.000,0:05:29.000 we can actually make the output even bigger. 0:05:29.000,0:05:32.000 We have a demonstration site in Mozambique. 0:05:32.000,0:05:35.000 Eleven African governments 0:05:35.000,0:05:38.000 have seen that they can become less dependent 0:05:38.000,0:05:40.000 by using this technology. 0:05:40.000,0:05:42.000 They have signed the pact for peace 0:05:42.000,0:05:45.000 and treaty in the Great Lakes region, 0:05:45.000,0:05:48.000 and they endorse hero rats 0:05:48.000,0:05:51.000 to clear their common borders of landmines. 0:05:51.000,0:05:54.000 But let me bring you to a very different problem. 0:05:54.000,0:05:56.000 And there's about 6,000 people last year 0:05:56.000,0:05:58.000 that walked on a landmine, 0:05:58.000,0:06:00.000 but worldwide last year, 0:06:00.000,0:06:02.000 almost 1.9 million died from tuberculosis 0:06:02.000,0:06:05.000 as a first cause of infection. 0:06:06.000,0:06:08.000 Especially in Africa 0:06:08.000,0:06:11.000 where T.B. and HIV are strongly linked, 0:06:11.000,0:06:15.000 there is a huge common problem. 0:06:16.000,0:06:19.000 Microscopy, the standard WHO procedure, 0:06:19.000,0:06:22.000 reaches from 40 to 60 percent reliability. 0:06:23.000,0:06:26.000 In Tanzania -- the numbers don't lie -- 0:06:26.000,0:06:29.000 45 percent of people -- T.B. patients -- 0:06:29.000,0:06:32.000 get diagnosed with T.B. before they die. 0:06:33.000,0:06:36.000 It means that, if you have T.B., 0:06:36.000,0:06:38.000 you have more chance that you won't be detected, 0:06:38.000,0:06:41.000 but will just die from T.B. secondary infections and so on. 0:06:45.000,0:06:47.000 And if, however, 0:06:47.000,0:06:49.000 you are detected very early, diagnosed early, 0:06:49.000,0:06:51.000 treatment can start, 0:06:51.000,0:06:54.000 and even in HIV-positives, it makes sense. 0:06:54.000,0:06:56.000 You can actually cure T.B., 0:06:56.000,0:06:59.000 even in HIV-positives. 0:06:59.000,0:07:02.000 So in our common language, Dutch, 0:07:02.000,0:07:04.000 the name for T.B. 0:07:04.000,0:07:06.000 is "tering," 0:07:06.000,0:07:08.000 which, etymologically, 0:07:08.000,0:07:11.000 refers to the smell of tar. 0:07:11.000,0:07:13.000 Already the old Chinese 0:07:13.000,0:07:16.000 and the Greek, Hippocrates, 0:07:16.000,0:07:18.000 have actually published, 0:07:18.000,0:07:21.000 documented, that T.B. can be diagnosed 0:07:21.000,0:07:23.000 based on the volatiles 0:07:23.000,0:07:26.000 exuding from patients. 0:07:26.000,0:07:28.000 So what we did is we collected some samples -- 0:07:28.000,0:07:30.000 just as a way of testing -- 0:07:30.000,0:07:32.000 from hospitals, 0:07:32.000,0:07:35.000 trained rats on them 0:07:35.000,0:07:37.000 and see if this works, 0:07:37.000,0:07:39.000 and wonder, well, 0:07:39.000,0:07:41.000 we can reach 89 percent sensitivity, 0:07:41.000,0:07:43.000 86 percent specificity 0:07:43.000,0:07:45.000 using multiple rats in a row. 0:07:45.000,0:07:47.000 This is how it works, 0:07:48.000,0:07:51.000 and really, this is a generic technology. 0:07:51.000,0:07:54.000 We're talking now explosives, tuberculosis, 0:07:54.000,0:07:56.000 but can you imagine, 0:07:56.000,0:07:58.000 you can actually put anything under there. 0:07:58.000,0:08:00.000 So how does it work? 0:08:00.000,0:08:02.000 You have a cassette with 10 samples. 0:08:02.000,0:08:05.000 You put these 10 samples at once in the cage. 0:08:05.000,0:08:07.000 An animal only needs two hundredths of a second 0:08:07.000,0:08:10.000 to discriminate the scent, so it goes extremely fast. 0:08:10.000,0:08:13.000 Here it's already at the third sample. 0:08:13.000,0:08:16.000 This is a positive sample. 0:08:17.000,0:08:20.000 It gets a click sound and comes for the food reward. 0:08:22.000,0:08:24.000 And by doing so, very fast, 0:08:24.000,0:08:27.000 we can have like a second-line opinion 0:08:27.000,0:08:29.000 to see which patients are positive, 0:08:29.000,0:08:32.000 which are negative. 0:08:32.000,0:08:34.000 Just as an indication, 0:08:34.000,0:08:36.000 whereas a microscopist can process 0:08:36.000,0:08:38.000 40 samples in a day, 0:08:38.000,0:08:40.000 a rat can process 0:08:40.000,0:08:42.000 the same amount of samples 0:08:42.000,0:08:44.000 in seven minutes only. 0:08:44.000,0:08:46.000 A cage like this -- 0:08:46.000,0:08:51.000 (Applause) 0:08:51.000,0:08:54.000 A cage like this -- provided that you have rats, 0:08:54.000,0:08:56.000 and we have now currently 0:08:56.000,0:08:58.000 25 tuberculosis rats -- 0:08:58.000,0:09:01.000 a cage like this, operating throughout the day, 0:09:01.000,0:09:04.000 can process 1,680 samples. 0:09:06.000,0:09:09.000 Can you imagine the potential offspring applications -- 0:09:09.000,0:09:11.000 environmental detection 0:09:11.000,0:09:13.000 of pollutants in soils, 0:09:13.000,0:09:15.000 customs applications, 0:09:15.000,0:09:18.000 detection of illicit goods in containers and so on. 0:09:19.000,0:09:21.000 But let's stick first to tuberculosis. 0:09:21.000,0:09:23.000 I just want to briefly highlight, 0:09:23.000,0:09:25.000 the blue rods 0:09:25.000,0:09:27.000 are the scores of microscopy only 0:09:27.000,0:09:30.000 at the five clinics in Dar es Salaam 0:09:30.000,0:09:32.000 on a population of 500,000 people, 0:09:32.000,0:09:35.000 where 15,000 reported to get a test done. 0:09:35.000,0:09:38.000 Microscopy for 1,800 patients. 0:09:38.000,0:09:42.000 And by just presenting the samples once more to the rats 0:09:42.000,0:09:45.000 and looping those results back, 0:09:45.000,0:09:47.000 we were able to increase case detection rates 0:09:47.000,0:09:49.000 by over 30 percent. 0:09:49.000,0:09:51.000 Throughout last year, 0:09:51.000,0:09:53.000 we've been -- depending on which intervals you take -- 0:09:53.000,0:09:55.000 we've been consistently 0:09:55.000,0:09:57.000 increasing case detection rates 0:09:57.000,0:09:59.000 in five hospitals in Dar es Salaam 0:09:59.000,0:10:02.000 between 30 and 40 percent. 0:10:02.000,0:10:04.000 So this is really considerable. 0:10:04.000,0:10:06.000 Knowing that a missed patient by microscopy 0:10:06.000,0:10:08.000 infects up to 15 people, 0:10:08.000,0:10:10.000 healthy people, per year, 0:10:10.000,0:10:12.000 you can be sure 0:10:12.000,0:10:14.000 that we have saved lots of lives. 0:10:14.000,0:10:17.000 At least our hero rats have saved lots of lives. 0:10:17.000,0:10:19.000 The way forward for us 0:10:19.000,0:10:21.000 is now to standardize this technology. 0:10:21.000,0:10:23.000 And there are simple things 0:10:23.000,0:10:27.000 like, for instance, we have a small laser in the sniffer hole 0:10:27.000,0:10:29.000 where the animal has to stick for five seconds. 0:10:29.000,0:10:31.000 So, to standardize this. 0:10:31.000,0:10:33.000 Also, to standardize the pellets, 0:10:33.000,0:10:35.000 the food rewards, 0:10:35.000,0:10:37.000 and to semi-automate this 0:10:37.000,0:10:40.000 in order to replicate this on a much larger scale 0:10:40.000,0:10:43.000 and affect the lives of many more people. 0:10:43.000,0:10:46.000 To conclude, there are also other applications at the horizon. 0:10:46.000,0:10:48.000 Here is a first prototype 0:10:48.000,0:10:50.000 of our camera rat, 0:10:50.000,0:10:52.000 which is a rat with a rat backpack 0:10:52.000,0:10:54.000 with a camera that can go under rubble 0:10:54.000,0:10:56.000 to detect for victims 0:10:56.000,0:10:58.000 after earthquake and so on. 0:10:58.000,0:11:00.000 This is in a prototype stage. 0:11:00.000,0:11:02.000 We don't have a working system here yet. 0:11:03.000,0:11:06.000 To conclude, I would actually like to say, 0:11:06.000,0:11:08.000 you may think this is about rats, these projects, 0:11:08.000,0:11:10.000 but in the end it is about people. 0:11:10.000,0:11:12.000 It is about empowering vulnerable communities 0:11:12.000,0:11:15.000 to tackle difficult, expensive 0:11:15.000,0:11:18.000 and dangerous humanitarian detection tasks, 0:11:18.000,0:11:21.000 and doing that with a local resource, 0:11:21.000,0:11:23.000 plenty available. 0:11:23.000,0:11:26.000 So something completely different 0:11:26.000,0:11:29.000 is to keep on challenging your perception 0:11:29.000,0:11:32.000 about the resources surrounding you, 0:11:32.000,0:11:35.000 whether they are environmental, 0:11:35.000,0:11:38.000 technological, animal, or human. 0:11:40.000,0:11:43.000 And to respectfully harmonize with them 0:11:43.000,0:11:46.000 in order to foster a sustainable world. 0:11:46.000,0:11:48.000 Thank you very much. 0:11:48.000,0:11:50.000 (Applause)