事件记录
播音员: Discover how the research of today will affect you tomorrow. The Science and 研究 Show is on the Scope.
面试官: Today we're speaking with Dr. 卡尔Wittwer, University of Utah Professor of Pathology, who recently was made a Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors, along with two other University of Utah faculty. You came to the University and one of the directives for you, 在你的位置上, was to find new technology. 你发明了什么？?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: I was a new professor, first academic job. 我有一个小实验室，但我有一个需要，我想做PCR过程. 这包括改变温度，通常在两到三个不同的温度之间. 这样做的设备，虽然在今天很常见，但在当时并不存在. 所以，有点天真和精力充沛的大发娱乐决定建造大发娱乐自己的乐器. Initially they were somewhat comical instruments, 来自于吹风机上的加热器和吸尘器上的风扇. 但经过大量的试验和错误，以及一些根本不起作用的原型, 或者不是很好, 我想出了一个很好的复制的东西，然后开始作为PCR机器出现. 只有一个例外. We were able to do it fast. We were able to change temperature very quickly. And if you think about some of the diagnostic applications for PCR, faster answers are always more useful. 通常，在那个时候，PCR用快速系统进行2到4小时. So we developed, we cut the time down to 10 to 15 minutes.
面试官: 好的，你能告诉大发娱乐聚合酶链反应是什么以及它的作用吗?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 当然. Long name but simple concept. Cells in your body replicate after they've made two copies of DNA. 现在，你可以在体外或试管中通过聚合酶链反应来做这个.
面试官: And what's the advantage of replicating DNA?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 这样做的好处是可以扩增DNA，这样你就可以更容易地测试DNA的序列. So there's only very minute amounts of DNA in most cells, 放大的过程让你可以询问或观察它, ask questions about what it is doing. What the bases are, what it's coding for. And whether or not there's any variance in the DNA. So ,it's like a large magnifying glass.
面试官: 然后你能从这些你扩增和制造的DNA中学到什么呢, 我接受了, 数以百万计的?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 数百万册. 你当然会熟悉司法程序,你在电视上看到的身份或血统. 在临床实验室中，主要应用于三个不同的领域. 传染病，不应该存在于个体样本中的DNA. 肿瘤或癌症，当然是由DNA的变化引起的. And finally, in genetics. 为了检测遗传疾病，你可能有而其他人没有的特征.
面试官: 从你的第一项发明开始，一家名为爱达荷科技的公司最终诞生了.
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 正确的,是的.
面试官: And Idaho Technology then manufactures these devices?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 对，最初的设备，大发娱乐回到1990年左右，那是很久以前的事了. We called it, not surprisingly, a Rapid Cycler. A niche product but people were interested in doing things quickly. And it kept the company alive for quite a while. One other thing that we developed was looking at DNA melting. So if you remember the double helix form of DNA, it's got two strands. And if you heat it up, eventually those two strands fall apart. And if you watch very carefully, about how they fall apart, 你可以告诉大发娱乐很多关于这个序列是什么以及它的作用. And any changes that may have occurred in that DNA. 后来的公司, which eventually changed its name to BioFire, 非常成功地获得了FDA批准的产品，用于寻找由感染因子引起的综合症. And even though it might be a common syndrome, like a flu-like illness or gastrointestinal symptoms, 只有有限数量的生物能引起这些疾病. 所以这个特殊的装置可以识别出综合症的致病生物体. 一小时内完成. 如果你回想一下你在医生办公室的经历，以及你可能需要多长时间才能得到结果, this has all been encapsulated in to a one hour test. In terms of genetic and infectious disease diagnostics.
面试官: 在我看来，当你在发明的时候，有一个非常有创造性的过程在进行. What makes you so creative in that area? Or what makes you want to be so creative in that area?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 是啊，俗话说需求是发明之母，你必须有所需求. 你必须要有一个目标. You want to be able to achieve something. 无论是快速进行PCR，这仍然是我的主要目标之一. To take the 速度 of amplification as an example, 当时，大发娱乐把几个小时的过程缩短到10到15分钟, that was pretty extraordinary. 我记得有人突然打来电话严厉地批评我说, “Wittwer, how can you lie to the public in your scientific publications?"
所以，当你真的做了一些不同的事情时，人们不会相信你所做的. 下一步，他们通常会说：“好吧，我承认你做了这件事，但它不值得. What are you going to use it for?“正确的? And then eventually you'll get some adherence. Some people who say, "Ah-ha, this actually really works.“最终，它可能会进入市场，你可能会在公司产品方面取得非常成功. 当然，在这个阶段，最初的发明者通常会被遗忘. 但你需要记住的是，这是过程的一部分，当它发生时，它实际上是成功的.
面试官: What does the future have in store for you and your research?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: We started by making PCR faster than it was at that time. 尽管大发娱乐花了20年的时间来重新审视放大的速度, PCR速度, 大发娱乐现在的系统只需要10到15分钟的过程就可以产生健壮的, 非常高效。, quantitative PCR in less than a minute. 所以开始考虑点护理应用，你实际上是在等待答案. So, when you can potentially get results out in under a minute timescale, it changes the way you think about providing diagnostics. Particularly at the point of care. So, of course I'm very excited about this again. 再一次。, currently the state of this is in prototypes that no one, 这在商业上是不可行的，很少有人会有耐心去做. But in terms of proving the point, 的极限, 无论是, 在这种情况下, 速度, 你最终会得到那些原型，希望其他人会采用这些原型，并使其更具商业实用性.
面试官: 你是否有信心，在某一时刻，技术将会商业化，让医生或任何其他大发娱乐提供者, 组织, to come up with results in a minute or less?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: 是的. 它会发生. 它必须发生，因为你的需要，因为你想要迅速得到东西的愿望. 没有理由, once the technology has shown that you can do it, the population will drive the companies to make it available.
面试官: What else can we cover that you would like to, or we didn't?
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: You know, most true inventions don't happen in large groups. They happen with individual people. 这种情况通常发生在没有太多资源的个人身上. So what that means in terms of the roll out of inventions, they usually don't happen in large companies. They happen either in small companies that are struggling to survive. Or they happen in academic labs, often small academic labs. 一个人抓住一个想法，致力于实现它.
面试官: Which sounds like is what you did.
Dr. 卡尔•Wittwer: Yeah, it's a lot of stubbornness. And belief in what you're doing. Even when other people don't believe in what you're doing. And believe me, they will not believe. 我有过这样的经历.
男: We're you're daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. 这是Scope. University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.