What if you could take a pill or a vaccine and, just like getting over a cold, you could heal your wounds faster?
如果你可以通过吃药或是打疫苗，就像治疗感冒那样，很快地治愈你的伤口，那会怎么样呢？
Today, if we have an operation or an accident, we're in the hospital for weeks,
今天，如果我们动手术或是出了事故，我们就要躺在医院好几个星期，
and often left with scars and painful side effects of our inability to regenerate or regrow healthy, uninjured organs.
然后通常会留下了疤痕和我们无法复原成原本健康器官的令人痛苦的副作用。
I work to create materials that instruct our immune system to give us the signals to grow new tissues.
我致力于制造可以引导我们的免疫系统给予身体信号去生长新组织的物质。
Just like vaccines instruct our body to fight disease,
就像疫苗引导我们的身体去对抗疾病，
we could instead instruct our immune system to build tissues and more quickly heal wounds.
我们可以改成引导我们的免疫系统去构建组织，使得可以较快速地治愈伤口。
Now, regrowing body parts out of nowhere might seem like magic, but there are several organisms that can achieve this feat.
现在，想让身体各个部位再生，可能看起来像魔术一样，但是有一些生物可以实现这样的壮举。
Some lizards can regrow their tails, the humble salamander can completely regenerate their arm,
有些蜥蜴可以让它们的尾巴再生，不起眼的蝾螈可以完全再生它们的手臂，
and even us mere humans can regrow our liver after losing more than half of its original mass.
甚至少数的人类在肝脏质量减少一半之后，他们的肝脏还能再生。
To make this magic a bit closer to reality,
为了让这样的魔术变得更切实际，
I'm investigating how our body can heal wounds and build tissue through instructions from the immune system.
我在研究要如何通过引导免疫系统，使得我们的身体可以治愈伤口和构建组织。
From a scrape on your knee to that annoying sinus infection, our immune system defends our body from danger.
从你的膝盖擦伤到恼人的鼻窦感染，我们的免疫系统一直在保护我们的身体免受侵害。
I'm an immunologist, and by using what I know about our body's defense system,
我是一位免疫学家，利用我所了解的身体防御系统，
I was able to identify key players in our fight to build back our cuts and bruises.
我能找到帮助我们复原伤痕的关键细胞。
When looking at materials that are currently being tested for their abilities to help regrow muscle,
当我们研究那些正被测试的、在帮助肌肉再生的物质时，
our team noticed that after treating an injured muscle with these materials,
我们的团队发现，用这些物质去治疗受伤的肌肉时，
there was a large number of immune cells in that material and the surrounding muscle.
物质和肌肉的周围会有大量的免疫细胞。
So in this case, instead of the immune cells rushing off towards infection to fight bacteria, they're rushing toward an injury.
所以在这个情况下，免疫细胞直接作用于伤口，而不是作用于感染去抵抗细菌。
I discovered a specific type of immune cell, the helper T cell,
我发现了一个特别型态的免疫细胞，辅助性T细胞，
was present inside that material that I implanted and absolutely critical for wound healing.
存在于我植入的物质中，对治疗伤口极其重要。
Now, just like when you were a kid and you'd break your pencil and try and tape it back together again,
就像你小时候把铅笔弄断时你试着再次把它接起来，
we can heal, but it might not be in the most functional way, and we'll get a scar.
我们可以治疗，但那可能不是最有效的方法，然后我们将会留下疤痕。

So if we don't have these helper T cells,
所以如果我们没有这些辅助性T细胞，
instead of healthy muscle, our muscle develops fat cells inside of it,
我们的肌肉内会长出脂肪细胞，而不是健康的肌肉，
and if there's fat in our muscle, it isn't as strong.
如果我们的肌肉里有脂肪，那就不会很强壮。
Now, using our immune system, our body could grow back without these scars and look like what it was before we were even injured.
现在，利用我们的免疫系统，我们的身体可以复原且没有疤痕，并且看起来像是没有受伤过一样。
I'm working to create materials that give us the signals to build new tissue by changing the immune response.
我在致力于制造物质，通过改变免疫反应给予我们信号去构建新的组织。
We know that any time a material is implanted in our body, the immune system will respond to it.
我们知道，不论何时将物质植入我们的体内，免疫系统都将会有所反应。
This ranges from pacemakers to insulin pumps to the materials that engineers are using to try and build new tissue.
从心脏节律器到胰岛素泵，再到工程师用来试图构建新的组织的物质。
So when I place that material, or scaffold, in the body,
所以当我把物质或是支架放入体内，
the immune system creates a small environment of cells and proteins that can change the way that our stem cells behave.
免疫系统会生成一个细胞和蛋白质的小环境，可以改变干细胞的行为方式。
Now, just like the weather affects our daily activities,
就像天气影响着我们的日常活动，
like going for a run or staying inside and binge-watching an entire TV show on Netflix,
例如去跑步或是待在室内在Netflix上一口气看完电视节目，
the immune environment of a scaffold affects the way that our stem cells grow and develop.
支架的免疫环境影响着我们干细胞的生长和发育。
If we have the wrong signals, say the Netflix signals, we get fat cells instead of muscle.
如果我们的信号出现错误，比如说是Netflix信号，我们就会长出脂肪细胞，而不是肌肉。
These scaffolds are made of a variety of different things,
这些支架是用多种不同的材料组成，
from plastics to naturally derived materials, nanofibers of varying thicknesses,
从塑料到天然衍生材料、不同厚度的奈米纤维，
sponges that are more or less porous, gels of different stiffnesses.
多孔或少孔的海绵，还有不同硬度的凝胶。
And researchers can even make the materials release different signals over time.
随着时间的推移，研究人员甚至可以使物质释放出不同信号。
So in other words, we can orchestrate this Broadway show of cells
所以换句话说，我们可以安排一场细胞的百老汇演出，
by giving them the correct stage, cues and props that can be changed for different tissues,
通过提供正确的舞台、线索和道具，它们可以变成不同的组织，
just like a producer would change the set for "Les Mis" versus "Little Shop of Horrors."
就像一位制片人可以改变《悲惨世界》和《绿魔先生》的布景一样。
I'm combining specific types of signals that mimic how our body responds to injury to help us regenerate.
我将结合特定型态的信号，模仿我们的身体如何对伤口作出反应，来帮助我们再生。
In the future, we could see a scar-proof band-aid, a moldable muscle filler or even a wound-healing vaccine.
未来我们可以发明防疤痕的创可贴、可塑的肌肉填充物或者甚至是伤口愈合的疫苗。
Now, we aren't going to wake up tomorrow and be able to heal like Wolverine.
不过现在，我们不会在明天起床就能像金刚狼那样复原。
Probably not next Tuesday, either.
可能也不是下周二。
But with these advances, and working with our immune system to help build tissue and heal wounds,
但这些进步，将会使我们的免疫系统帮助构建组织和愈合伤口，
we could begin seeing products on the market that work with our body's defense system to help us regenerate,
我们可以开始期待在市场上看到这些作用于身体的防御系统、帮助我们的伤口再生的产品，
and maybe one day be able to keep pace with a salamander. Thank you.
也许有一天，我们可以跟上蝾螈的脚步。谢谢大家。