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So I'm here today surrounded by all these fruits and vegetables, because these are the subjects of my experiments.
今天，我的面前摆着许多水果蔬菜，因为它们是都我的实验对象。
Now, bear with me for just a second,
现在，请先耐心听我说，
but about a decade ago my team started to rethink how we make materials for reconstructing damaged or diseased human tissues,
大约十年前，我的团队开始思索如何创造出能用于重建受损或患病的人体组织的材料，
and we made the totally unexpected discovery that plants could be used for this purpose.
然后我们出乎意料的是，我们发现，可以用植物来达成这个目标。
In fact, we invented a way to take these plants and strip them of all their DNA and their cells, leaving behind natural fibers.
事实上，我们发明了一个方法，能去除这些植物所有的DNA和细胞，只留下天然纤维。
And these fibers could then be used as a scaffold for reconstructing living tissue.
然后用这些纤维作为重建活体组织的骨架。
Now I know this is a little weird, but in our very first proof-of-concept experiment,
我知道这听起来有些离奇，但在我们的第一次可行性实验中，
we took an apple, carved it into the shape of a human ear,
我们把一个苹果雕刻成人耳的形状，
and then we took that ear-shaped scaffold, sterilized it, processed it and coaxed human cells to grow inside of it.
然后对这个耳朵形状的骨架进行消毒与进一步处理，再诱导人类细胞在其中生长。
We then took the next step and implanted it,
接着我们进行了下一步，将它植入，
and we were able to demonstrate that the scaffolds stimulated the formation of blood vessels, allowing the heart to keep them alive.
然后我们发现这些骨架刺激了血管的形成，从而让心脏帮它们保持鲜活。
So not too long after these discoveries were taking place, I was at home cooking asparagus for dinner,
在获得这些发现之后不久，我在家里煮芦笋做晚饭，
and after cutting the ends off, I was noticing that the stalks were full of these microchanneled vascular bundles.
切掉根部之后，我发现芦笋茎里充满了由微管道组成的维管束。
And it really reminded me of a whole body of bioengineering effort aimed at treating spinal cord injury.
这让我想起了生物工程为了治疗脊髓损伤做出的诸多努力。
Up to half a million people per year suffer from this type of injury,
每年有约50万人受这种伤病之苦，
and the symptoms can range from pain and numbness to devastating traumas that lead to a complete loss of motor function and independence.
其症状轻则带来疼痛与麻痹，重则导致不可修复的创伤，使人完全丧失运动机能和自理能力。
And in these forms of paralysis, there's no accepted treatment strategy,
这类瘫痪还没有标准的治疗方案，
but one possible solution might be the use of a scaffold that has microchannels which may guide regenerating neurons.
但一种可能的解决办法是用具有微管道的骨架引导神经细胞的再生。
So, could we use the asparagus and its vascular bundles to repair a spinal cord?
那么，我们能否使用芦笋和它的维管束对脊髓进行修复呢？
This is a really dumb idea. First of all, humans aren't plants.
这是一个相当离谱的想法。首先，人类不是植物。
Our cells have not evolved to grow on plant polymers, and plant tissues have no business being found in your spinal cord.
我们的细胞没有进化出在植物分子上生长的能力，植物组织和你的脊髓也毫不相干。
And secondly, ideally these types of scaffolds should disappear over time, leaving behind natural, healthy tissue.
第二，理想的状况下，这类骨架应当逐渐消失，留下天然、健康的组织。
But plant-based scaffolds don't do that, because we lack the enzymes to break them down.
但是植物性骨架无法做到，因为我们缺乏降解它们的酶。
Funnily enough, these properties were exactly why we were having so much success.
有意思的是，恰恰是这些性质让我们取得了巨大的进展。
Over the course of many experiments, we were able to demonstrate that the inertness of plant tissue is exactly why it's so biocompatible.
在许多实验中，我们发现植物组织的惰性正是其出色生物兼容性的原因。
In a way, the body almost doesn't even see it, but regenerating cells benefit from its shape and stability.
可以说，人体甚至几乎发觉不了它的存在，但再生的细胞又能得益于它的形状和稳定性。
Now this is all well and good, but I constantly felt this weight of doubt when it came to thinking about spinal cords.
这一切都很好，但在思考脊髓的时候，我总会感到疑虑的重压。
So many scientists were using materials from traditional sources, like synthetic polymers and animal products -- even human cadavers.
那么多科学家都在使用传统来源的材料，比如合成高分子和动物制品--甚至人类尸体。
I felt like a complete outsider with no real right to work on such a hard problem.
我觉得自己就是个彻头彻尾的局外人，无权研究这个如此艰难的问题。
But because of this doubt, I surrounded myself with neurosurgeons and clinicians,
但正因有这种疑虑，我召集了神经外科医师、临床医师、
biochemists and bioengineers, and we started to plan experiments.
生物化学家、生物工程师，并开始一起设计实验。
The basic idea is that we would take an animal, anesthetize it,
基本的想法是，我们会对一只动物进行麻醉，
expose its spinal cord and sever it in the thoracic region, rendering the animal a paraplegic.
暴露出它的脊髓并在胸椎部位进行截断，使其截瘫。
We would then implant an asparagus scaffold between the severed ends of the spinal cord to act as a bridge.
然后我们将芦笋骨架植入脊髓的断点之间，起到桥梁的作用。
Now this is crucially important. We're only using asparagus.
接下来的这点至关重要。我们只用了芦笋。
We're not adding stem cells or electrical stimulation or exoskeletons or physical therapy or pharmaceuticals.
没有添加任何干细胞、电刺激、外骨骼、物理治疗或者药物。
We're simply investigating if the microchannels in the scaffold alone are enough to guide the regeneration of neurons.
我们只是在研究仅凭骨架中的微管道是否足以引导神经元的再生。
And here are the main results. In this video, you can see an animal about eight weeks after being paralyzed.
主要结果如下。在这段视频里，你能看到一只截瘫八周后的动物。
You can see she can't move her back legs, and she can't lift herself up.
可以看到，它无法挪动后腿，也无法站起来。
Now I know how difficult this video is to watch.
我知道这个视频让人看起来很不舒服。
My team struggled every day with these types of experiments,
我的团队每天都在因为这类实验挣扎，
and we constantly asked ourselves why we were doing this... until we started to observe something extraordinary.
我们不停地问自己为什么要做这种事，直到我们开始观察到难以置信的事。
This is an animal that received an implant.
这是一只接受了移植的动物。
Now she's not walking perfectly, but she's moving those back legs and she's even starting to lift herself up.
它还没法完美行走，但已能够移动后腿，甚至能开始站起来。
And on a treadmill, you can see those legs moving in a coordinated fashion.
而在跑步机上，可以看到后腿在协调地运动。
These are crucial signs of recovery.
这些是康复的关键迹象。
Now we still have a lot of work to do, and there are a lot of questions to answer,
我们仍有大量工作要做，还有很多问题待解答，
but this is the first time anyone has shown that plant tissues can be used to repair such a complex injury.
但这是第一次有人发现植物组织能用于修复如此复杂的损伤。
Even so, we've been sitting on this data for over five years.
即便如此，我们手握这些内部数据已有五年了。
Doubt drove us to repeat these experiments again and again, to the point of almost bankrupting my lab.
疑虑驱使我们一次又一次地重复这些实验，甚至差点让我的实验室破产。
But I kept pushing, because I knew these results could be the start of something extraordinary.
但我一直坚持这样做，因为我知道这些结果可能是奇迹的开端。
And what's just as exciting is that my company is now translating these discoveries into the clinic -- into the real world.
同样激动人心的是，我的公司正在将这些发现引入医疗诊所--引入现实世界。
This technology has just been designated a breakthrough medical device by the FDA.
这项技术刚被食品药品监督管理局认定为“突破性医疗器械”。
And this designation means that right now we're in the midst of planning human clinical trials set to begin in about two years.
这项认定意味着，目前我们正在筹备人类临床试验，将在约两年后开展。
So I'd like to show you a prototype of one of our state-of-the-art spinal cord implants.
我想展示一下凝聚了我们尖端技术的植入式脊髓的样板。
It's still made from asparagus and contains all of those microchannels.
它仍是由芦笋制成的，含有大量微管道。
And you can see that it moves and bends and has the same feel as human tissue.
可以看见，它弯曲的方式和它的触感都和人体组织一样。
And you know, I think the real innovation is that
那么，我认为真正的创新在于，
we're now able to design or program the architecture and structure of plant tissues in such a way
我们现在能够设计或规划植物组织的构架与结构，
that they could direct cell growth to address an unmet medical need.
使得它们能根据待解决的医疗需求引导细胞生长。
As scientists, we spend our lives living on a knife's edge.
作为科学家，我们一生都在刀刃上跳舞。
On the one hand, it's our job to fundamentally broaden the horizons of human knowledge,
一方面，我们的职责是从根本上拓宽人类知识的边界，
but at the same time, we're trained to doubt -- to doubt our data, to doubt our experiments, to doubt our own conclusions.
但同时，我们受过的训练让我们保持质疑--质疑我们的数据、实验，质疑我们自己得出的结论。
We spend our lives crushed under the weight of constant, unrelenting, never-ending anxiety, uncertainty and self-doubt.
我们终其一生都被焦虑、不确定性和自我怀疑所碾压，这种重压持续不断、毫不留情、永无终结。
And this is something I really struggle with.
我一直因此而苦苦挣扎。
But I think almost every scientist can tell you about the time they ignored those doubts and did the experiment that would never work.
但我觉得几乎每一位科学家都能告诉你，他们何时决定忽略这些疑虑，做了那个肯定不会成功的实验。
And the thing is, every now and then, one of those experiments works out.
而事实是，时不时地，其中一个实验就是成功了。
The challenge we face is that while doubt can be destructive to your mental health,
我们面临的挑战是，虽说怀疑会打击你的精神健康，
it's also the reason why scientific rigor is such a potent tool for discovery.
但也正因为怀疑，科学严谨性才会是催生发现的有力工具。
It forces us to ask the difficult questions and repeat experiments. Nothing about that is easy.
它迫使我们问出困难的问题，不断重复实验。这一切都不轻松。
And often it becomes our responsibility to bear the burden of the hard and sometimes heart-wrenching experiment.
背负起困难的、时而令人心碎的实验的重担，常常会变成我们的责任。
This ultimately leads to the creation of new knowledge,
这最终会通向新知识的诞生，
and in some really rare cases, the type of innovation that just might change a person's life. Thank you.
而在一些非常罕见的例子里，能创造出可以改变人生的创新。谢谢。
