today we will start with a small
experiments and therefore I need
dear there are everyone a big applause
for our phones there today today we will
perform a live DNA isolation and before
therefore we will use the cells of the
inside of your mouth so will you please
wash your mouth with water it’s a very
easy experiment you could also perform
it you can also perform it at home the
only things you need are just available
over-the-counter all our DNA is in all
our cells we got half of our DNA from
our mother and half of our DNA from our
father you can’t spit it that yes thank
you good
so now part of the cells of your mouths
are inside this tube but the DNA is
inside the cells 2 meter in every cell
therefore I use some soap to destroy the
outside of the cells so that the DNA
will be in the solution but DNA is
suitable in water so we can still not
see it
therefore I add some alcohol to make it
visible and that takes a few seconds so
this is a very easy experiment but this
is not the way to perform science
because I didn’t inform you about this
specific experiment and it didn’t ask
consent to participate in this
experiment because now I have access to
your DNA to your DNA code and I can do
because who else would have access to
your code I can give the information to
your health care insurance or I can give
the information to your employer I can
share your data with Facebook or Google
or with the government in which we can
use it for forensic science if you want
that No
okay so so now I will show the public I
will show your DNA but after that you
will get it back okay so okay okay so
now all the very small white dots into
an indecision in the upper parts that
are really DNA molecules they are
cluttered together but this DNA although
it’s very simple methods is feasible for
DNA testing give the big applause to our
volunteer the development of DNA testing
has gone incredibly fast when I started
my study biomedical sciences at the
Leiden University in 2005 we were one of
the first groups of students who started
their study while the DNA code of the
human was known that project took 30
years and about 2.7 billion dollar to
know the exact codes of the human DNA
this knowledge has made major impacts
for medicine for biotechnology and for
other life sciences having access to the
complete sequence is similar to having
all pages of a manual but the challenge
for researchers now is to determine how
to read the content of all these pages
and to understand how the different
parts
work together we are now able to
sequence the DNA codes within one week
for less than a thousand dollars and I
cannot imagine what will be the
situation in the next 15 years DNA
testing is a powerful tool in preventive
medicine and in personalized treatment
we are now able to identify patients at
high risk for getting cancer and by
knowing that we can prevent cancer or at
least diagnose it at an earliest
possible stage by putting these pages on
the civilians but we are also able to
identify people that are at high risk
for neurological disorders like
Alzheimer’s disease and do you want to
know that you have an increased risk of
developing these kind of diseases for
with no prevention and no treatment is
possible might not because this could
give severe of psychological burden but
on the other hand you might make other
choices during life like reproductive
choices although we now have some very
good applications to use these kind of
techniques there are still less that we
know then that we know about a DNA code
even a simple heuristic says the color
of your eyes of which we thought that it
was simple genetics turned out to be
more complex than that there is a very
interesting interaction between nature
and nurture and every day there are more
questions than answers but that makes my
job as a scientist very interesting and
we will push the boundaries
but although there are so much that we
not know there is a growing business in
direct-to-consumer DNA testing and it is
as easy as our experiment you only have
to send some saliva to these companies
and you will get the results in a report
after a few weeks they offer all kinds
of tests from nice to no information to
DNA dating and to know more about your
heritage but there are also test tests
that give you information on on health
related issues and which information do
you need to make the choice if you want
to know this information or not in
clinics I need more than an hour to give
information for a specific disease in
relation to the family history of these
patients at a personalized education
level to explain them what the test is
about and what the consequences might be
I cannot imagine that you can fit all
this information for all these different
this is the situation now but what will
be the situation in the next 15 years
would the DNA code of every human in the
Netherlands be known do you receive the
code of a newborn baby at a USB stick
directly after birth or would we even
perform the DNA testing before
conception to create a perfect baby and
if not should we then change the DNA
code in order to get that should we use
that kind of techniques only in case of
specific diseases like cancer in which
we can change the DNA code of the cells
to get to make the patient better or
should should we also use these
techniques for very severe congenital
diseases in children which have a very
poor life expectancy and very severe
physical and mental disabilities or
should we also use it for other diseases
and where should we draw the line and
more importantly who should draw the
line our data scientists are that is
that the government are that the medical
ethical people or should it be the
parents all these questions are now
important me as a scientist I can i
might contribute to all the
possibilities for DNA testing and DNA
editing in the future but you as a
society you should decide if everything
that’s possible if we also should do
that and I hope that today I give you
some tools to think about this topic and
to think about the relation what will me
what the enable mean in your future just
because we could doesn’t mean we should
and there are all kind of possibilities
let’s give more problems that you can
imagine
I’m as a scientist I will push the
boundaries because for every step I take
in science I have a patient in mind of
which I think that he or she could
but there are also possibilities with
which give more problems that you can
imagine today you and I we strengthened
the building bridges between science and
society thank you [Applause]
experiments and therefore I need
dear there are everyone a big applause
for our phones there today today we will
perform a live DNA isolation and before
therefore we will use the cells of the
inside of your mouth so will you please
wash your mouth with water it’s a very
easy experiment you could also perform
it you can also perform it at home the
only things you need are just available
over-the-counter all our DNA is in all
our cells we got half of our DNA from
our mother and half of our DNA from our
father you can’t spit it that yes thank
you good
so now part of the cells of your mouths
are inside this tube but the DNA is
inside the cells 2 meter in every cell
therefore I use some soap to destroy the
outside of the cells so that the DNA
will be in the solution but DNA is
suitable in water so we can still not
see it
therefore I add some alcohol to make it
visible and that takes a few seconds so
this is a very easy experiment but this
is not the way to perform science
because I didn’t inform you about this
specific experiment and it didn’t ask
consent to participate in this
experiment because now I have access to
your DNA to your DNA code and I can do
because who else would have access to
your code I can give the information to
your health care insurance or I can give
the information to your employer I can
share your data with Facebook or Google
or with the government in which we can
use it for forensic science if you want
that No
okay so so now I will show the public I
will show your DNA but after that you
will get it back okay so okay okay so
now all the very small white dots into
an indecision in the upper parts that
are really DNA molecules they are
cluttered together but this DNA although
it’s very simple methods is feasible for
DNA testing give the big applause to our
volunteer the development of DNA testing
has gone incredibly fast when I started
my study biomedical sciences at the
Leiden University in 2005 we were one of
the first groups of students who started
their study while the DNA code of the
human was known that project took 30
years and about 2.7 billion dollar to
know the exact codes of the human DNA
this knowledge has made major impacts
for medicine for biotechnology and for
other life sciences having access to the
complete sequence is similar to having
all pages of a manual but the challenge
for researchers now is to determine how
to read the content of all these pages
and to understand how the different
parts
work together we are now able to
sequence the DNA codes within one week
for less than a thousand dollars and I
cannot imagine what will be the
situation in the next 15 years DNA
testing is a powerful tool in preventive
medicine and in personalized treatment
we are now able to identify patients at
high risk for getting cancer and by
knowing that we can prevent cancer or at
least diagnose it at an earliest
possible stage by putting these pages on
the civilians but we are also able to
identify people that are at high risk
for neurological disorders like
Alzheimer’s disease and do you want to
know that you have an increased risk of
developing these kind of diseases for
with no prevention and no treatment is
possible might not because this could
give severe of psychological burden but
on the other hand you might make other
choices during life like reproductive
choices although we now have some very
good applications to use these kind of
techniques there are still less that we
know then that we know about a DNA code
even a simple heuristic says the color
of your eyes of which we thought that it
was simple genetics turned out to be
more complex than that there is a very
interesting interaction between nature
and nurture and every day there are more
questions than answers but that makes my
job as a scientist very interesting and
we will push the boundaries
but although there are so much that we
not know there is a growing business in
direct-to-consumer DNA testing and it is
as easy as our experiment you only have
to send some saliva to these companies
and you will get the results in a report
after a few weeks they offer all kinds
of tests from nice to no information to
DNA dating and to know more about your
heritage but there are also test tests
that give you information on on health
related issues and which information do
you need to make the choice if you want
to know this information or not in
clinics I need more than an hour to give
information for a specific disease in
relation to the family history of these
patients at a personalized education
level to explain them what the test is
about and what the consequences might be
I cannot imagine that you can fit all
this information for all these different
this is the situation now but what will
be the situation in the next 15 years
would the DNA code of every human in the
Netherlands be known do you receive the
code of a newborn baby at a USB stick
directly after birth or would we even
perform the DNA testing before
conception to create a perfect baby and
if not should we then change the DNA
code in order to get that should we use
that kind of techniques only in case of
specific diseases like cancer in which
we can change the DNA code of the cells
to get to make the patient better or
should should we also use these
techniques for very severe congenital
diseases in children which have a very
poor life expectancy and very severe
physical and mental disabilities or
should we also use it for other diseases
and where should we draw the line and
more importantly who should draw the
line our data scientists are that is
that the government are that the medical
ethical people or should it be the
parents all these questions are now
important me as a scientist I can i
might contribute to all the
possibilities for DNA testing and DNA
editing in the future but you as a
society you should decide if everything
that’s possible if we also should do
that and I hope that today I give you
some tools to think about this topic and
to think about the relation what will me
what the enable mean in your future just
because we could doesn’t mean we should
and there are all kind of possibilities
let’s give more problems that you can
imagine
I’m as a scientist I will push the
boundaries because for every step I take
in science I have a patient in mind of
which I think that he or she could
but there are also possibilities with
which give more problems that you can
imagine today you and I we strengthened
the building bridges between science and
society thank you [Applause]
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