北京時(shí)間5月31日凌晨3:30 (美東時(shí)間5月30日下午3:30）， World Science Hill 獨(dú)家專訪了美國(guó)著名化學(xué)家、企業(yè)家、發(fā)明家Robert Langer教授。

Robert Langer（羅伯特·蘭格爾）教授是麻省理工學(xué)院（MIT）享有最高榮譽(yù)的教授之一，擁有1400余份專利，是世界上最高引用量的科學(xué)家之一，在生物科技中的藥物開發(fā)和組織工程學(xué)領(lǐng)域獲得了舉世矚目的成就，同時(shí)他也參與創(chuàng)立了包括Moderna在內(nèi)的40余家生物醫(yī)藥企業(yè)，2021年以49億美金身價(jià)進(jìn)入Forbes 400財(cái)富排行榜，名列第222位，被譽(yù)為當(dāng)代“醫(yī)藥愛迪生”。

在此次 World Science Hill的專訪中，Robert Langer 教授簡(jiǎn)要分享了自己對(duì)于生物醫(yī)藥、藥物開發(fā)的理解以及對(duì)后人工智能時(shí)代的生物科技發(fā)展進(jìn)行了展望，此外Robert Langer 教授還為生物方向的在讀學(xué)生們分享了自己寶貴的經(jīng)驗(yàn)和建議。

△（World Science Hill 創(chuàng)始人Mia 王璟晗獨(dú)家專訪Robert Langer視頻截圖）

@Mia王璟晗

Can you use a short sentence to describe your main research interest?

你能用一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)短的句子來描述你的主要研究方向嗎？

@Robert Langer

My research interest is biomedical engineering, particularly in drug delivery systems and tissue engineering.

我的研究興趣主要是生物醫(yī)學(xué)工程，尤其是藥物開發(fā)系統(tǒng)和組織工程。

@Mia王璟晗

For your field, what is the ultimate goal?

對(duì)于你的領(lǐng)域，最終的目標(biāo)是什么？

@Robert Langer

The ultimate goal is to get a basic understanding of the phenomenon that affects both of these, drug delivery and tissue engineering, and to develop technologies that will enable them to solve and address different problems and applications.

最終目標(biāo)是對(duì)影響藥物輸送和組織工程這兩者的現(xiàn)象有一個(gè)基本的了解，并開發(fā)技術(shù)，使其能夠解決和處理應(yīng)用中的不同問題。

@Mia王璟晗

What is the relation between bioinformatics and biotechnology? How did you utilize bioinformatics tools and databases in your research or industrial experiences?

生物信息學(xué)和生物技術(shù)之間的關(guān)系是什么？在研究或工業(yè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)中，你是如何利用生物信息學(xué)工具和數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)的？

@Robert Langer

Bioinformatics is developing methods for understanding biologic data, in particular when data are large and complex. Biotechnology involves using biologic and engineering principles to create new biologic entities and medical entities. Their relation is that in some cases, like deciphering the genome, bioinformatics is critical to making advances in biotechnology.

生物信息學(xué)是一種用來理解生物數(shù)據(jù)的方法，特別是當(dāng)數(shù)據(jù)龐大而復(fù)雜時(shí)。生物技術(shù)涉及使用生物和工程原理來創(chuàng)造新的生物實(shí)體和醫(yī)學(xué)實(shí)體。他們二者的關(guān)系是，在某些特定的課題中，例如破譯基因組，生物信息學(xué)更是取得進(jìn)展的關(guān)鍵。

@Mia王璟晗

For drug design, many people are trying to use AI for assistance. Do you think AI will improve the efficiency of drug design? And how?

對(duì)于藥物設(shè)計(jì)，很多人都在嘗試使用人工智能進(jìn)行協(xié)助。你認(rèn)為人工智能會(huì)提高藥物設(shè)計(jì)的效率嗎？以及如何提高？

@Robert Langer

I do think that AI will improve the efficiency of drug design. I think you can use AI to analyze chemical structures for example and use that information about structures as a guide to design the next-generation structures and then test them.

我確實(shí)認(rèn)為，人工智能將提高藥物設(shè)計(jì)的效率。我認(rèn)為你可以使用人工智能來分析，例如，化學(xué)結(jié)構(gòu)，以及對(duì)不同區(qū)域看起來有影響的結(jié)構(gòu)的其他信息，并將其作為設(shè)計(jì)下一代結(jié)構(gòu)的指南，然后進(jìn)行測(cè)試。

@Mia王璟晗

Can you explain the concept of gene editing and its potential applications in biotechnology? Will it be the next game changer for the world?

你能解釋一下基因編輯的概念及其在生物技術(shù)中的潛在應(yīng)用嗎？它是否會(huì)成為世界的下一個(gè)重大變革呢？

@Robert Langer

Gene editing, which involves what it says, means that you can cut and paste things out of the genome, so that you can perhaps get rid of gene sequences you don’t want or add sequences you do want, to cure the disease for example. Will it be a game changer? I think it will be one of the game changers, but there will be other game changers too.

基因編輯，涉及到它所說的，意味著你可以從基因中剪切和粘貼一些片段到基因中，因此，你也許可以通過基因編輯來去掉你不想要的片段，或者增加你想要的片段，比如可以治愈疾病的基因，或者是不會(huì)導(dǎo)致某種特定疾病的基因片段等等。這將是一個(gè)改變世界的新技術(shù)嗎？我認(rèn)為是的，但準(zhǔn)確來說，它將只是改變世界的新技術(shù)之一，因?yàn)楹翢o疑問，也會(huì)有其他新技術(shù)同樣改變著世界。

@Mia王璟晗

For new students trying to gain a degree in biology or related subjects, do you have any suggestions or advice for them?

對(duì)于生物學(xué)或相關(guān)學(xué)科學(xué)位的新生，您對(duì)他們有什么建議或忠告嗎？

@Robert Langer

From the educational point of view, my advice to students, especially undergraduate students, is to learn fundamentals. Take the most basic courses like molecular biology and cell biology. I also think it’s good to do research.

從教育的角度來看，我對(duì)學(xué)生，特別是本科生的建議或忠告是多學(xué)習(xí)基礎(chǔ)知識(shí)。學(xué)習(xí)最基本的課程，如分子生物學(xué)和細(xì)胞生物學(xué)，我還認(rèn)為盡早開始做科研是一件非常有幫助的事情。

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