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Medical science has a problem—it’s missing something.
医学有个问题——它缺少了一些东西。
Something that means that not only is it harder to find the causes of some diseases—and effective ways to treat them—some diseases are getting overlooked entirely.
这不仅意味着难以找到某些疾病的成因，或者治疗它们的有效方法，而且有些疾病被完全忽略。
It turns out what it’s missing could be you—but I’ll get to that in a bit.
似乎缺少的是你，但这我待会解释。
Because first, a story.
因为首先，我要讲一个故事。
Or 8 billion stories, to be precise.
或者准确地说，是八十亿个故事。
See, our DNA is our body's instruction manual, sure.
我们的 DNA 算是我们身体的使用说明书。
But it’s also a history book that records our own, unique genetic story.
但它也是一本记录我们独特基因故事的历史书。
All our stories begin around 300,000 years ago when humans arose in Africa.
我们所有的故事从三十万年前开始，那时，人类出现在了非洲。
Some genetic stories tell of leaving a couple of hundred thousand years later, journeying into Europe, East Asia,or the Americas.
有些遗传的故事发生在几十万年以后，进入了欧洲、东亚或美洲。
Some genetic stories speak of expanding empires.
有些遗传的故事关于扩张的帝国。
Others the diseases we evolved to ward off, and some the simple act of settling down, raising cattle, and drinking their milk.
另一些关于我们演化出免疫力的疾病，还有一些涉及简单的行为像定居，畜牧，和喝奶。
Each of our genetic stories are different, but maybe not as different as you might expect.
我们每个人的基因故事各异，但也许没你想的那么不同。
We share 99.9% of our DNA with each other.
我们彼此共享 99.9% 的 DNA。
Our stories are 99.9% identical, but that 0.1% difference is incredibly powerful.
我们的故事 99.9% 相同，但那 0.1% 的差异非常强大。
In that tiny difference between our genetic stories is where we have the potential to develop better treatments for diseases—treatments that work for everyone.
我们的遗传故事中那细小的差异，使得我们能够研发出更好的疾病治疗方案。使每个人受用。
But medical science isn’t currently reading all those stories.
但医学目前还没有细读所有这些故事。
To explain let me tell you how researchers work out the causes of diseases, and develop and test the effectiveness and safety of new treatments.
为了解释，让我告诉你研究人员是如何找出疾病的成因，开发和测试新疗法的有效性和安全性。
To find out the causes of a particular disease,researchers find lots of people who have that condition and comb through their genetic stories.
以找出一类疾病的成因，研究人员找到很多有这种疾病的人并研究它们的遗传故事。
They look for little variations they share—little bits of their DNA stories that are spelt differently.
他们记录这其中的差异看他们的 DNA 故事在哪里不同。
If they find some, then they try all sorts of different ways of dealing with the effect of them.
如果发现差异，那么他们会尝试各种不同的方式对付这些的影响。
And if that uncovers something that looks promising, they then run a clinical trial to see if it actually is.
如果发现一个看起来具有潜力的解决方案，他们会进行临床试验以进一步研究。
In phase one, a small group of volunteers try the treatment.
首先，一小群志愿者接受治疗。
Well, often only half of them do, with the other half getting a placebo that does absolutely nothing.
实际上，只有一半的人接受治疗。另一半服用安慰剂，毫无作用。
If there aren’t any notable side effects at the target dose, the treatment is cleared to move on to the next stage of the clinical trial.
如果在目标剂量下没有明显的副作用，治疗将获准进入下一阶段的临床试验。
Phase two, this time with a bigger group of participants who all have the condition the researchers hope the drug will treat.
第二步，更多的志愿者参与，且患有研究人员希望治疗的病症。
If the drug appears effective, it moves on to phase three, with more participants trying it for even longer.
如果药物看起来有效，它进入第三步，包含更多参与者和更长时间的试验。
Only after all this is the new treatment then reviewed and— hopefully— approved for use by us, the general population.
只有在此过程之后，新疗法才被审查，并幸运的话被批准广泛使用。
But there's a problem with it.
但存在一个问题。
Here is the ethnicity of lots and lots of people used to recently find the causes of various diseases.
这是最近用于研究疾病成因的人的种族。
And here is how that compares to the ethnic diversity of the world’s population.
[欧洲人、亚洲人、非洲人、拉丁裔]这是跟世界多样的人口现状相比较。
Spot the difference?
你能看到区别么？
The genetic stories that researchers are combing through are heavily biased to those of people from European descent.
研究人员关注的遗传故事主要是欧洲血统。
Which means that if you’re searching for those disease-causing bits of DNA to target new drugs against, and you're mainly reading the stories of people of European descent, you might completely overlook key bits in the stories of other diverse groups that tell of, say, a changed risk of disease or even shed light on how a disease occurs—
这意味着，如果你正在寻找那些致病的 DNA 片段用于新药，而你主要是在研究欧洲人的基因故事，你可能完全忽略其他不同族裔故事里的关键部分，可能涉及患病风险的改变，甚至疾病产生的机制。
for example, scientists may not have found the mutation that causes sickle cell disorder if we’d only looked in the stories of people of European descent.
例如，如果科学家只研究欧洲血统，他们就可能不会发现导致镰状细胞病的突变。
And the thing is, what medical science is missing doesn't end there.
事实是，医学科学的缺陷不止于此。
When new treatments or medical devices are being tested, they need to be tested on everyone that may use them.
当新的治疗方式、设备经受测试时，他们需要对每位可能的患者进行测试。
If the genetic stories involved don’t reflect the breadth of stories in our worldwide library then, again, something might be missed.
如果考虑的遗传故事不足以反映我们全球范围的基因集的丰富度，便可能漏掉些东西。
Take, for example, the medicine Warfarin; used to prevent blood clots.
例如: 用来防止血栓的药物华法林 (Warfarin)。
Researchers have found that, to produce the same effect, most people of East Asian descent need a lower dose than some people of European descent, and most people of African ethnicity need a larger dose.
研究人员发现，以产生相同的效果，大多数东亚族裔人需要比某些欧洲人更低的剂量，而大多数非洲人需要更大的剂量。
Which means the dose that works best for someone may vary according to their ethnicity.
这意味着任何人的最佳剂量可能取决于他们的族裔。
It’s this kind of important information that can be missed if clinical trials don’t include people from across a range of ethnicities.
如果临床试验不包括多个族裔这样的重要信息便会遭遗漏。
So what’s the solution?
那么解决方案是什么？
Well, it’s quite simple... in theory.
其实, 这挺简单的...理论上讲。
In order to develop treatments that work better for everyone, we need to involve everyone’s stories in medical research—in the early stage research, in the drug development process, and right through the clinical trial.
为了使得治疗对每个人都有效，我们需要把所有人的故事包括在医学研究中，在早期研究中，在药物研发过程中，和在临床试验中。
The good news is that more and more people are thinking about this.
好消息是越来越多人们正在思考这个问题。
For example, cancer researchers at University College London researching genetic markers for cancer want to analyze tissue samples from a wide range of ethnicities so that the biomarkers of cancer they identify will be relevant for people from as many ethnicities as possible.
比如，伦敦大学学院的癌症研究人员，正在研究来自多个族裔的组织样本中的基因标记；这样它们找到的癌症生物标志将对尽可能多的族裔适用。
Bottom line: medical science needs to ensure it’s got the best library it can have—the one with the widest collection of genetic stories possible, so that everyone’s story can be considered—including yours.
结论是，医学需要确保它拥有最全的图书馆，拥有最繁多的遗传故事,使每个人的故事被考虑，包括你的。
That is the only way to ensure everyone, everywhere can get the best medical treatment they possibly can.
只有这样才能保证任何人在任何地方都能得到最佳的医疗。
