being a scientist all the time I’m not a
dermatologist not a doctor I don’t even
play a doctor on TV I’m a mathematician
and actually I’m a mathematician who’s
been in health care for 32 years now
most people think that mathematicians
solve problems with just numbers and
formulas which is true but really we
just love solving problems and every
once in a while a problem does not show
up as a problem everyone once in a while
you’ll have it show up as a unexpected
result
and sometimes these unexpected results
can be a huge breakthrough what you just
put on your hands was a huge
breakthrough so we were working on these
topical therapies to reduce
hospital-acquired infections you guys
have probably read a lot about that in
the news and we were we had looked at it
we said if we could get 20 to 25%
reduction in these hospital-acquired
infections that would be significant but
what if I told you we were achieving 80%
reduction well truth be Nod really
couldn’t understand how are we getting
that so I reached out to one of the
leading research core neo biologists in
the world a corneal biology I didn’t
know what a corneal biologist was and
I’m hoping you don’t they study the
outside layer of your skin it’s called
the stratum corneum and this research
cornea biologist his name was dr. Peter
Elias and dr. alas is amazing man has
been published over 600 times and I
couldn’t understand what was going on so
I reached out to him and he came in he
started speak with me and he said Steve
the success you’re saying makes complete
sense now when you when the member when
I was having earlier conversation with
dr. Elias he would use like 10 or 12
words in a sentence I was googling seven
of them cuz I couldn’t figure out what
are you saying but he was really patient
with me you know mathematicians we asked
a lot of questions and he said
something’s what I want to really share
with you today he said Steve you do know
that you could not walk on planet earth
without your
rest all you man space suit and I said
even space suit I’ve got a human space
suit now dr. Elias is so much smarter
than I am I’m sure what it sounded like
was are you telling me I got me a space
suit but he was very patient with me
he said no Lee do you have a human space
suit he said you actually put on a new
one every 28 days and I said well being
the mathematician I said if I lived to
75 or 80 does that mean I’m gonna put on
a thousand space suits in my lifetime
yeah that’s about right and I said wow
that really just took me back and one of
things about mathematicians if we love
elegant solutions not just a solution an
elegant solution is its complex but yet
it’s very simple and that’s what your
human space suit is and what he was
explaining to me is a reason why we had
such a breakthrough what you put on your
hands today was because we were
restoring repairing your human space
suit if we’re able to do that we can
have these huge successes so that’s what
why we were having that breakthrough
with these very sick patients in
intensive care units it’s my question to
you today is what would happen if we
took what you just did what would that
do to your everyday life could we
improve your life so what I want to take
you through is why don’t we have
spacesuits at all how do these
spacesuits work a little bit and then
why does it matter so let’s think about
Matt Damon first of all Matt Damon on
Mars you’re a lot like Matt Damon except
for you don’t have the breathing problem
the food problem okay y’all saw this
movie but you have these hostile
assaults that are coming in to you every
day just like he does
on Mars UV radiation pollution wind
humid conditions dry conditions even
really pathogens we talked about that a
little bit right these bugs that we have
in hospitals that are now in your
schools gyms home don’t want to scare
you too much but that’s what it is so
the first thing you have for your human
space suit you want to keep the bad
stuff away we want to protect you second
thing is your watertight and you don’t
think that’s a big deal but going back
to high school you’ve forgotten set
any % of you is water so it’s very
important that we maintain your water
supply and your outside of your suit is
really important to doing that you know
doctor lives told me one time he said
Steve he said if you weren’t managing
your water supply you couldn’t have the
miracle of life on dry land without it
good point but here’s one thing that
Matt Damon didn’t have in his suit he
didn’t have sensory capabilities so your
human space suit you can feel things you
can feel being touched heat cold you
have all of those things he didn’t have
anything close to that but here’s the
question why do you only or what don’t
you only have one suit why do you have a
thousand so think about Matt Damon if he
wore the same suit for 70 years what
would that suit look like after being on
Mars NASA would issued a lot of
duct-tape wouldn’t they so that’s one of
the main reasons why you have this so
let’s talk about how this works is where
it gets interesting so you have two
parts to your suit part that’s you part
that’s not you the part that’s you is
your stratum corneum a lot of the work
that dr. Elias did the microbiome is
more of a new science this is the
collection of organisms on your body and
you kind of been grown up with bugs are
bad well I’m going to I’m here to tell
you bugs are good and we’ll take you
through it so let’s think about the part
that you stratum corneum I want you to
think about a brick wall and that’s
basically why your skin works it’s about
20 to 30 layers just that outside layer
and these bricks are held together with
mortar that has lipids and proteins and
this brick wall has a lot of redundancy
so think about something trying to get
through your skin
it’s got together through 20 or 30
layers so this redundancy is amazing but
what’s really neat about this and dr.
Elias really made a lot of these
discoveries is that you have 10
defensive functions that are working on
your behalf
your UV defense we talked about that
being in Utah your mechanical defenses
your chemical defenses even your animal
crowbill defenses and so you have these
animal cobia peptides that are
constantly coming up to the surface on
your behalf
24/7 you have 40 of them so that if you
get a pathogen on you or
some assault they’re always going and
working on your behalf so let’s talk
about the part that’s not you your
microbiome you’ve been picking up bugs
ever since you were born in fact four or
five pounds of you is not you I don’t
know if you’re aware of that that’s in
your gut on your skin in fact a lot of
people say you’re actually more bug than
you are human because it’s ten to one
for every human cell you have you have
ten microbes these month these this when
we think about the microbiome of your
skin it’s a little bit different than
your gut you’re used to you know Greek
yogurt and everything that you’re doing
you’re a little bit interested in that
but we’re talking about your topical
microbiome it’s very diverse you have
over a trillion organisms on your skin
right now believe it or not I hope that
didn’t gross you out and these and I
want you to think about your your
microbiome and you actually a lot of
micro bones think of your your body like
a map of the United States your feet are
like Miami and your forearm is like
Arizona dry moist you’re going to weigh
different sets of collection of
organisms but these organisms all work
together on your behalf and this is an
the new science that we’re talking about
is that your bacteria your fungi they
they actually are in chat rooms and they
actually have conversations with one
another and they work on your defensive
nature even communicating with your own
body and they have these memory cells so
that when they see an assault that they
seen before they go oh I’ve seen that
before and they start to attack it so
this is that part that’s not you part
that’s you and they come together but
for them to work this is where it gets
really really fun for them to work your
body has to be acidic
the issue is you’re not acidic
throughout your whole life so this
thousand space suits don’t look the same
so it kind of take you back to high
school if you can think about pH acidic
is down around zero one neutral is seven
alkaline is like 14 so you’re a little
bit acidic so when you’re born you’re
born more neutral with a pH of around
6.5 it takes you four to six months to
become acidic so you don’t have the same
defensive properties it’s why infants
have cradle cap or even eczema
and then as we get to be adults now your
skin’s become acidic and those ten
defensive functions are working really
well on your behalf and here’s what’s
interesting
all these superbugs that you hear about
in hospitals and in the newspapers they
all grow at a pH of seven more neutral
but your acidic they can’t grow there as
long as I can keep you acidic I can keep
you from infection it’s about that
simple but then you get to be my age 56
and I stopped creating these animal
crowby alep tides and my pH starts to go
up and as my ph goes up I start to lose
my defensive functions I like when I’m
an infant it’s one of the reasons why I
wrinkle
I always tell everybody it’s my space
suit that’s wrinkling not me but this
that this curve has consequences and the
consequences are it gets to the point of
why does this matter well at any one
time 25% of us are having disorders with
our human space suit 25% at any one time
and disorder just sounds annoying it’s
not just annoying there’s a lot of
disabilities if I’m over the age of 60
90% of us are gonna be having going to
be having disorders with your human
space suit 22,000 of us are gonna go
into a hospital this year it’s probably
one of us you’re not gonna have an
infection you’re going to get an
infection while you’re in the hospital
and we’re not gonna have any antibiotic
for you that works 22,000 of Sirkin die
every year and that number continues to
grow up and up so it matters taking care
of this human space suit is absolutely
critical
so I have to be honest with you we do
have a problem as interesting as all
that is I mean if you have a problem and
it’s pretty significant and I’m not sure
how we got here
and I’m starting to understand the
solution a bit but here’s the problem if
we’ve known about this science for over
40 years why is no one told us why the
companies continue to sell us products
even procedures like laser peels that
are bad for our humans face it it makes
no sense to me the shampoos that we all
use this morning have an alkaline of
about 12 or
it’s gonna take you six to eight hours
for your human space suit to become
alkaline again
I mean acidic again you now know your
human space suit to work has to be
acidic or think about the hand
sanitizers that you’ve been using hand
sanitizers while they kill the bad bugs
guess what else they kill the good bugs
totally destroys your microbiome and so
now you’re more susceptible to infection
than where you started makes no sense
cosmetics you’re using synthetic
ingredients that are destroying your
microbiome it’s the same story and we
continue to do this so what would the
impact be if all of us in our lives
became more aware of the thousand space
suits that we had we took better care of
them what impact would that have in our
communities or even global health once
you consider this this is a map in 2050
it’s just 30 almost a little less than
35 years from now there are going to be
10 million additional deaths worldwide
because of a lack of an antibiotic
people all over the world gonna get
infection we’re gonna go in and we don’t
have an antibiotic to treat you we’re
getting more people dying from this than
cancer in just 35 years do you think
having an acidic spacesuit properly
maintained could change this map of
course it could consider this 35 percent
of all of our asthma cases are due to an
infant who had atopic dermatitis eczema
remember we talked about that what’s the
first thing that we do with an infant in
this country we give them a baby wash it
has a pH of 12 or 13 and what should we
be doing we should be trying to
encourage them to get their skin acidic
sooner so they don’t get eczema that is
this conference about dreams don’t work
unless you do and I really want to flip
that around a little bit and I want to
be more collective dreams don’t work
unless we do I’m the CEO of a life
sciences company we’re committing all of
our resources to creating therapies that
are addressing these gaps and whether it
be hospitals long-term care even home
health
but it’s not enough I need you to
partner with me and be more aware be
taking more active role in your family
in your community of the products that
you use products you don’t use like hand
sanitizers hopefully you know that now
it can make a huge difference so here’s
the takeaways for today two things one
you walk in here and you didn’t realize
you in an elegant human space suit that
has incredible capabilities hopefully
you understand that today right the
second thing is if you’ll take better
care of the thousand life suits that
you’re going to be given I promise you I
promise you that your spaces will take
incredible care of you thank you
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]