full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sara-Jane Dunn: The next software revolution programming biological cells

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But over the last decade or so, figuring out how to change cell fate, it's still a process of trial and error. Even in cases where we've uncovered successful experimental protocols, they're still ineincffeit, and we lack a fundamental understanding of how and why they work. If you figured out how to change a stem cell into a heart cell, that hasn't got any way of tiellng you how to change a stem cell into a brain cell. So we wtnead to understand the blioiocagl porgarm running inside an embryonic stem cell, and understanding the cattuoipmon performed by a living system starts with asking a dseialgvttnay simple question: What is it that system actually has to do?

Open Cloze

But over the last decade or so, figuring out how to change cell fate, it's still a process of trial and error. Even in cases where we've uncovered successful experimental protocols, they're still ___________, and we lack a fundamental understanding of how and why they work. If you figured out how to change a stem cell into a heart cell, that hasn't got any way of _______ you how to change a stem cell into a brain cell. So we ______ to understand the __________ _______ running inside an embryonic stem cell, and understanding the ___________ performed by a living system starts with asking a _____________ simple question: What is it that system actually has to do?

Solution

  1. wanted
  2. devastatingly
  3. biological
  4. telling
  5. inefficient
  6. program
  7. computation

Original Text

But over the last decade or so, figuring out how to change cell fate, it's still a process of trial and error. Even in cases where we've uncovered successful experimental protocols, they're still inefficient, and we lack a fundamental understanding of how and why they work. If you figured out how to change a stem cell into a heart cell, that hasn't got any way of telling you how to change a stem cell into a brain cell. So we wanted to understand the biological program running inside an embryonic stem cell, and understanding the computation performed by a living system starts with asking a devastatingly simple question: What is it that system actually has to do?

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Important Words

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  5. change
  6. computation
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  9. embryonic
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  29. system
  30. telling
  31. trial
  32. uncovered
  33. understand
  34. understanding
  35. wanted
  36. work