Let's start our journey today by traveling back in time
to the Stone Age, around 10,000 B.C.
If you don't know what period I'm talking about, just think of the Flintstones.
It is caveman Fred and his wife Wilma that started the technological revolution.
Farming, most noticeably the farming of wheat.
Through the ages, the cultivation and consumption of wheat increases
and is spread all over the world.
Now, we fast forward to something like 2008.
There's more awareness around celiac disease and gluten,
which is present in barley, rye, and wheat.
This results in a completely new revolution,
and this time, gluten intolerance is spread all over the world.
Or so it seems.
The thing is a lot of people think they are gluten intolerant,
but they don't really know for sure.
This is due to the inadequate diagnosis of this intolerance.
Currently, the best way to determine if you are gluten intolerant
is to remove gluten from your diet,
and please read with me from the slide,
and see how you feel without it.
Wow! That is some impressive advanced technological approach.
We can send people into space,
we can move separate atoms underneath a microscope,
but we're unable to accurately determine if someone is intolerant
to a compound present in breads, pizza, cookies, and whatnot.
Now, imagine an approach that would be worthy of the 21st century.
We go to the supermarket
and make our way to the section where they sell medicines and vitamins.
Usually in that section, you can also find pregnancy tests.
What is easier than buying a small device,
peeing on it, and just reading out the results?
What if you could buy such a test, not only for gluten intolerance,
but also for cat allergy and other allergies?
What if you could bring a small tester with you when you go hiking
to test for lyme disease when you've been bitten by a tick?
The reality is that currently blood tests are most common
to determine if you have an allergy or a disease.
Maybe some of you have experienced this.
So the first step is to make an appointment and go to the doctor
and have some of your blood collected.
Then they have your blood, and the fun begins.
Your sample goes through a lengthy process with various analytical steps,
but in the end, some result that the doctor can interpret.
Finally, the doctor can come and tell you
that you might be a little allergic to almost everything they tested,
as happened to a friend of mine.
So obviously, the current method has some drawbacks.
Firstly, you need to actually go to the doctor,
which is not that convenient when you're in the middle of a hike.
Furthermore, the method also takes quite a long time.
The tests themselves take a couple of hours,
and it's usually days until you get back your results.
For me, the biggest problem
was that I wasn't allowed to eat anything beforehand,
and I almost passed out because I was so hungry.
Some people are uncomfortable with all these barriers.
Others have their blood tested too late or not at all.
Especially in cases such as lyme disease, this can cause some serious health issues.
If the infection is not detected and treated in time,
you might end up in a wheelchair for the remainder of your life,
experiencing excruciating joint pain.
Now, I am a student here at the Delft University of Technology,
and I am part of a team participating in a worldwide competition.
And it is our dream to realize the simple but sophisticated test,
I mentioned before, for allergies and diseases.
I hope by now you understand
why it is so important to improve the current methods
and that we have your full support.
There is just this tiny aspect of our project
that will probably make you a little less supportive.
That's the fact that it's based on a genetically modified bacterium.
What? Genetic modification?
It's a scary subject,
and people usually freak out a little when this topic is mentioned,
or synthetic biology in general is mentioned.
So I'd like to examine it a little further.
Now, as a kid I was, and I still am, a very passionate reader.
The Harry Potter books, The Da Vinci Code series,
Steven King thrillers - I read them all.
Sometimes I would get so lost in a story
that I could not shake it off me while already in bed.
Then this funny thing happened,
something most of us have experienced at some point in our lives.
You start to imagine monsters under your bed.
Without an actual cause to be afraid,
your brain comes up with these very creative, scary thoughts.
Now, we're all adults here, and we can laugh at these little childish problems.
I mean come on, monsters under the bed?
We've grown over troubles like that.
Or have we?
I think synthetic biology is the adult version of the monster under the bed.
We read something about it in the newspaper,
and it gives us this uneasy feeling, without actually knowing what it is.
Mostly, I think it's a fear of the unknown.
If you go onto the street and ask random passersby
what they know about and think of synthetic biology,
the answers are usually a little vague.
Like, I've heard people calling it "manipulation of nature."
This is often mentioned in combination with GMO plants.
It is especially terms like "manipulation" that have this negative ring to it.
I'd like you to step back from these negative vibes and get back to the core.
Synthetic biology, what is it?
Now, we live in the 21st century,
so we can just look up the definition online.
But this just results in some very elaborate sentences
that actually explain very little.
So I'd like to use iGEM as an example.
iGEM is the worldwide competition I mentioned before,
and iGEM stands for "International Genetically Engineered Machines."
On the iGEM website it says, "For over ten years, we've been encouraging students
to work together to solve real-world challenges
by building genetically engineered biological systems
with standard, interchangeable parts."
Now, a core compound of synthetic biology,
actually all of us, is DNA,
the code in ourselves that forms the blueprint
for what we look like and for all cellular processes.
Some of the techniques we employ involve genetic engineering,
which comes down to the cutting and pasting of this DNA.
Additionally, we can also read DNA codes and write DNA sequences ourselves.
However, I can imagine this to still be a little vague.
So let's discuss the three things that biological systems are very good at,
which is making, breaking, and detecting.
For example, there was this iGEM team that focused on creating an alternate way
for the production of an antimalarial drug.
There's making.
Another team focused on obtaining a protein
able to efficiently and quickly degrade plastic
to treat, for example, the plastic soup in the ocean.
Breaking.
Last but not least, we hope that our simple but sophisticated test
can be used to detect antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
so that the antibiotic usage can be adapted accordingly.
As you've probably noticed, I am a student in the synthetic biology field,
so of course, I think it's going to be useful.
However, I'm also very aware of the risks that go paired with genetic engineering,
meaning we can actually change DNA.
With the wrong intention, this can cause some serious health risks.
Let's compare it to a pair of scissors.
As it just so happens, I have a pair with me.
As a child, we all learned that we should not run around while carrying a pair,
and that if we really have to walk with them,
we should do it like this, right?
And we don't start out by using the real thing, too.
I still remember the struggles
when I tried to cut anything with blunt, childproof scissors.
My point is a pair of scissors can be dangerous,
but when they are used responsibly, they form a very handy, valuable tool.
And the exact same thing is true for synthetic biology.
There is, of course, this one difference.
And that is that it is easier for you to trust me with this pair of scissors
than it is for you to trust me with synthetic biology.
Why?
Well, if I go walking around like this with my pair of scissors,
you all know I am doing it wrong
because you have been taught how to carry them as well.
However, in the case of synthetic biology,
it's much more unlikely that you can tell when I'm making a mistake.
Most of you are not familiar with the safety rules I've been taught
to practice synthetic biology responsibly.
But should this stop us from curing diseases?
Saving environments?
And generally trying to make the world a better place?
I hope you agree with me
that synthetic biology can be of huge benefit to all humankind.
Yes, there are risks,
but as long as it's practiced responsibly, it poses no threat to us.
In that sense, our fear of the unknown might actually be a bigger threat
than synthetic biology itself.
To quote from Dan Brown's "Inferno,"
"Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus.
And that's fear."
So I hope you all sleep well tonight.
The monsters under your bed are just shadows,
and we can shine a light on them.
Thank you.
(Applause)