TED演讲:疯狂的科学家用苹果做出了耳朵(2)
So one day I was hacking something, I was taking it apart, and I had this sudden idea:
有一天我正在拆解东西，我突然产生了这样的想法：
Could I treat biology like hardware?
我能不能把生物体当作硬件？
Could I dismantle a biological system, mix and match the parts
我能不能拆分一个生物系统，混合并配对拆分出来的部分，
and then put it back together in some new and creative way?
然后用全新的创造性的方式把它重新拼装？
My lab started working on this, and I want to show you the result.
于是我的实验室开始了相关的研究，我想给你们展示一下成果。
Can any of you guys tell me what fruit this is? Apple!
你们有谁能够告诉我这是什么水果吗？苹果！
That's right — it's an apple.
没错——这是个苹果。
Now, I actually want you to notice as well that this is a lot redder than most apples.
我现在也需要你们注意，它比其他苹果要红得多。
And that's because we grew human cells into it.
原因是我们在其中植入了人类细胞。
We took a totally innocent Macintosh apple,
我们拿了一个纯正的麦金塔苹果
removed all the apple cells and DNA and then implanted human cells.
移除所有的苹果细胞和DNA，再植入人类细胞。
And what we're left with after removing all the apple cells is this cellulose scaffold.
移除全部苹果细胞后，剩下的是纤维素骨架。
This is the stuff that gives plants their shape and texture.
正是纤维素保证了植物的形状和质感。
And these little holes that you can see, this is where all the apple cells used to be.
还有你们看到的这些小孔，就是苹果细胞原来所在的地方。
So then we come along, we implant some mammalian cells that you can see in blue.
然后我们继续试验，植入了一些哺乳动物细胞，你们可以看到是蓝色的。
What happens is, these guys start multiplying and they fill up this entire scaffold.
接下来，它们开始繁殖，并充满了整个骨架空隙。
As weird as this is, it's actually really reminiscent of how our own tissues are organized.
听起来有些不可思议，这的确能使我们联想到人体的组织排列方式。
And we found in our pre-clinical work that you can implant these scaffolds into the body,
我们在临床前试验时发现，你可以把这些纤维素骨架植入体内，
and the body will send in cells and a blood supply and actually keep these things alive.
而身体会提供细胞和血液供应来维持其生命活动。
This is the point when people started asking me, "Andrew, can you make body parts out of apples?"
就在这个时候人们开始问我，“安德鲁，你能从苹果中制造出人体部位吗？”
And I'm like, "You've come to the right place."
我答道：“你来对地方了。”
安德鲁·佩林是一位生物学黑客，而大自然就是他的“硬件”。他最喜欢的原料总是那些最简单的（他经常在废物里寻找材料）。依靠维持苹果形状的纤维素结构，他“培植”出栩栩如生的人耳，开拓了一个新的领域，也许将来有一天它们就能被用来安全廉价地修复人体部位。
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