"We've thought about illness and treatment
in terms of a profoundly simple model.
In fact, the model is so simple
that you could summarize it in six words:
have disease, take pill, kill something." - Siddhartha Mukherjee.
TED talks are notoriously thought provoking, and I always find that after watching one my perception on the world is radically altered. However, this talk in particular by Siddhartha Mukerjee named 'Soon we'll cure diseases with a cell, not a pill' really infulenced and inspired me, to the point that I even caught myself thinking about it whilst I should have been integrating a trigonometric function in my maths lesson. With my understanding of the looming issue of antibiotic resistance growing, due to my EPQ on phage therapy, which is also providing an alternative to antibiotics, I have found myself intruiged at learning about alternatives to antiobiotics, and this TED talk covered the topic in a refreshing way. Instead of focusing on the problem of antibiotic resistance, Mukherjee focuses on the use of stem cells to create a new model of treatment and a new view on thinking about illness. Suggesting an alternative to the lock and key model, Mukherjee introudces the idea that we as a society need to revaluate our ideas on medicine; medicine no longer needs to be a pill. Today we can utilise our environment, holistic approaches, cells, and of course the classic 'pills' as forms of treatment.
Mukherjee suggests the new model of cell, organ, environment to treat a disease and goes into great depth in his talk about how this model was devised.
I truely believe that in order to avoid a huge health catastrophe we need to find an alternative to anitiobiotics. We should not eradicate them completely, as they are indeniable extremely useful drugs. However, due to antibiotic resistance, we must consider other treatment options and Mukherjee's use of stem cells and a new model for medicine just may be an answer.
I highly recommend watching this TED talk, the link is below:
Link to TED talk - soon we'll cure diseases with a cell, not a pill by Siddhartha Mukherjee
