-
So ... we're in a real live war
at the moment,
-
and it's a war that we're truly losing.
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It's a war on superbugs.
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So you might wonder,
-
if I'm going to talk about superbugs,
-
why I'm showing you a photograph
of some soccer fans --
-
Liverpool soccer fans
celebrating a famous victory
-
in Istanbul, a decade ago.
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In the back, in the red shirt,
-
well, that's me,
-
and next to me in the red hat,
that's my friend Paul Rice.
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So a couple of years
after this picture was taken,
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Paul went into hospital
for some minor surgery,
-
and he developed
a superbug-related infection,
-
and he died.
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And I was truly shocked.
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He was a healthy guy in the prime of life.
-
So there and then,
-
and actually with a lot of encouragement
from a couple of TEDsters,
-
I declared my own
personal war on superbugs.
-
So let's talk about superbugs
for a moment.
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The story actually starts in the 1940s
-
with the widespread
introduction of antibiotics.
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And since then,
-
drug-resistant bacteria
have continued to emerge,
-
and so we've been forced to develop
newer and newer drugs
-
to fight these new bacteria.
-
And this vicious cycle
actually is the origin of superbugs,
-
which is simply bacteria
for which we don't have effective drugs.
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I'm sure you'll recognize
at least some of these superbugs.
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These are the more
common ones around today.
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Last year, around 700,000 people died
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from superbug-related diseases.
-
Looking to the future,
-
if we carry on on the path we're going,
-
which is basically a drugs-based
approach to the problem,
-
the best estimate
by the middle of this century
-
is that the worldwide death toll
from superbugs will be 10 million.
-
10 million.
-
Just to put that in context,
that's actually more
-
than the number of people
that died of cancer worldwide last year.
-
So it seems pretty clear
that we're not on a good road,
-
and the drugs-based approach
to this problem is not working.
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I'm a physicist,
-
and so I wondered, could we take
a physics-based approach --
-
a different approach to this problem.
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And in that context,
-
the first thing we know for sure,
-
is that we actually know how to kill
every kind of microbe,
-
every kind of virus,
-
every kind of bacteria.
-
And that's with ultraviolet light.
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We've actually known this
for more than 100 years.
-
I think you all know
what ultraviolet light is.
-
It's part of a spectrum
that includes infrared,
-
it includes visible light,
-
and the short-wavelength part
of this group is ultraviolet light.
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The key thing from our perspective here
-
is that ultraviolet light kills bacteria
by a completely different mechanism
-
from the way drugs kill bacteria.
-
So ultraviolet light is just as capable
of killing a drug-resistant bacteria
-
as any other bacteria,
-
and because ultraviolet light
is so good at killing all bugs,
-
it's actually used a lot these days
to sterilize rooms,
-
sterilize working surfaces.
-
What you see here is a surgical theater
-
being sterilized with germicidal
ultraviolet light.
-
But what you don't see
in this picture, actually,
-
is any people,
-
and there's a very good reason for that.
-
Ultraviolet light
is actually a health hazard,
-
so it can damage cells in our skin,
-
cause skin cancer,
-
it can damage cells in our eye,
-
cause eye diseases like cataract.
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So you can't use conventional,
germicidal, ultraviolet light
-
when there are people are around.
-
And of course,
-
we want to sterilize mostly
when there are people around.
-
So the ideal ultraviolet light
-
would actually be able
to kill all bacteria,
-
including superbugs,
-
but would be safe for human exposure.
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And actually that's where my physics
background kicked into this story.
-
Together with my physics colleagues,
-
we realized there actually is a particular
wavelength of ultraviolet light
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that should kill all bacteria,
-
but should be safe for human exposure.
-
That wavelength is called far-UVC light,
-
and it's just the short-wavelength part
of the ultraviolet spectrum.
-
So let's see how that would work.
-
What you're seeing here
is the surface of our skin,
-
and I'm going to superimpose on that
some bacteria in the air above the skin.
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Now we're going to see what happens
-
when conventional, germicidal,
ultraviolet light impinges on this.
-
So what you see is,
-
as we know, germicidal light
is really good at killing bacteria,
-
but what you also see
-
is that it penetrates
into the upper layers of our skin,
-
and it can damage
those key cells in our skin
-
which ultimately, when damaged,
can lead to skin cancer.
-
So let's compare now with far-UVC light --
-
same situation,
-
skin and some bacteria
in the air above them.
-
So what you're seeing now
-
is that again, far-UVC light's
perfectly fine at killing bacteria,
-
but what far-UVC light can't do
is penetrate into our skin.
-
And there's a good,
solid physics reason for that:
-
far-UVC light is incredibly, strongly
absorbed by all biological materials,
-
so it simply can't go very far.
-
Now, viruses and bacteria
are really, really, really small,
-
so the far-UVC light can certainly
penetrate them and kill them,
-
but what it can't do
is penetrate into skin,
-
and it can't even penetrate
the dead-cell area
-
right at the very surface of our skin.
-
So far-UVC light
should be able to kill bacteria,
-
but kill them safely.
-
So that's the theory.
-
It should work, should be safe.
-
What about in practice?
-
Does it really work?
-
Is it really safe?
-
So that's actually what our lab
has been working on
-
the past five or six years,
-
and I'm delighted to say the answer
to both these questions
-
is an emphatic yes.
-
Yes, it does work,
-
but yes, it is safe.
-
So I'm delighted to say that,
-
but actually I'm not very
surprised to say that,
-
because it's purely the laws
of physics at work.
-
So let's look to the future.
-
I'm thrilled that we now have
a completely new weapon,
-
and I should say an inexpensive weapon,
-
in our fight against superbugs.
-
For example,
-
I see far-UVC lights in surgical theaters.
-
I see far-UVC lights
in food preparation areas.
-
And in terms of preventing
the spread of viruses,
-
I see far-UVC lights in schools,
-
preventing the spread of influenza,
-
preventing the spread of measles,
-
and I see far-UVC lights
in airports or airplanes,
-
preventing the global spread
of viruses like H1N1 virus.
-
So back to my friend Paul Rice.
-
He was actually a well-known
and well-loved local politician
-
in his and my hometown of Liverpool,
-
and they put up a statue in his memory
in the center of Liverpool,
-
and there it is.
-
But me,
-
I want Paul's legacy to be a major advance
in this war against superbugs.
-
Armed with the power of light,
-
that's actually within our grasp.
-
Thank you.
-
(Applause)
-
Chris Anderson: Stay up here, David,
I've got a question for you.
-
(Applause)
-
David, tell us where you're up to
in developing this,
-
and what are the remaining obstacles
to trying to roll out
-
and realize this dream?
-
David Brenner: Well, I think we now know
that it kills all bacteria,
-
but we sort of knew
that before we started,
-
but we certainly tested that.
-
So we have to do lots and lots
of tests about safety,
-
and so it's more about safety
than it is about efficacy.
-
And we need to do short-term tests,
-
and we need to do long-term tests
-
to make sure you can't develop
melanoma many years on.
-
So those studies
are pretty well done at this point.
-
The FDA of course is something
we have to deal with,
-
and rightly so,
-
because we certainly can't use this
in the real world without FDA approval.
-
CA: Are you trying
to launch first in the US,
-
or somewhere else?
-
DB: Actually, in a couple of countries.
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In Japan and in the US, both.
-
CA: Have you been able to persuade
biologists, doctors,
-
that this is a safe approach?
-
DB: Well, as you can imagine,
there is a certain skepticism
-
because everybody knows
that UV light is not safe.
-
So when somebody comes along and says,
-
"Well, this particular UV light is safe,"
-
there is a barrier to be crossed,
-
but the data are there,
-
and I think that's what
we're going to be standing on.
-
CA: Well, we wish you well.
-
This is potentially such important work.
-
Thank you so much
for sharing this with us.
-
Thank you, David.
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(Applause)