我很荣幸来到西安，而且我相信未来的几天将会更加令人兴奋。记得在奥斯瓦尔德•埃弗里、科林•麦克劳德和麦克林•麦卡蒂于1944年证明了DNA是生命器官的遗传物质以前，人们仍然认为染色体蛋白质携带基因而DNA是一个次要的角色。DNA已经经历了曲折而又漫长的过程。我们可以了解到它的基本构造，阅读出它一些代码，我们也知道关于DNA是如何引导蛋白质和RNA分子在细胞中执行基本功能的基础知识。尽管目前我们能够做到低成本和快速的排序DNA序列，但是要想做到完全解读它的奥秘还任重而道远，全面性的掌握细胞的工作原理将是未来我们攻克的难关。
生物领域的研究与发展将会主导着21世纪，我们也期待着对细胞功能的了解与探索以及对其他生物领域的研究与实践能够为人类造福。我们渴望看到一些的新兴的生物燃料和对疾病的新疗法，在农业领域，在这日益恶化的环境中，我们将少用水少用杀虫剂并且生物技术的应用将会大幅度地提高采收率。
另一方面，从政治上的角度来看，各国政府应该接受那些转基因的产品而非出于政治性的目的对其设置层层障碍，在没有强有力的证据下硬说它们是对人类健康有害的产品。同时我也想跟那些消息灵通的人士说：实际上转基因产品要比传统意义上的产品更安全。
为了我们能够得到更好的诊断与治疗，我们也在不断的研究与探索人类的基因及其变化，就好比我现在对细菌的研究，因为它占据着我们的身体和我们一起共生是我们身体的重要组成部分。另一方面，个人医疗检测能够为我们的健康提供进一步的保障但就目前而言还不是太完善。
合成生物学是将生物科学应用到日常生活中的一种崭新方式能够从一开始就构建起新型的微生物，这门科学兴起于本世纪初至于未来怎么样却不好说。
干细胞可以分化成其他的细胞因此被赋予了“全能”的荣誉。那么，干细胞究竟能够分化成什么，怎样进行分化，走哪条路到达分化终点，这些过程又是由哪些因素决定的呢？这些有挑战性的研究时常令我感到兴奋。 我们可以利用功能细胞来获得多能干细胞，这样可以以旧换新如肾或者是心。
对于知识的掌握和未来的美好憧憬都在不断地鞭策着我，因为我所期望的不是长生不老而是一个有质量的生活。
我希望我所说的能够感染每一个人尤其是年轻人，用你们的知识去打造我们的未来，因为未来是属于你们的！
英文原稿：
It is a pleasure to be here in Xian for what promises to be an exciting few days. Since the demonstration in 1944 by McCarty, Avery and McCleod that DNA was the genetic material, DNA has come a long way. We know its basic structure, can read some of its code and know the basics of how it directs the manufacture of the protein and RNA molecules that perform the essential functions in the cell. However, despite our rapidly increasing ability to sequence DNA quickly and at low cost, our ability to understand the full function of the proteins it encodes is lagging very far behind and this ignorance currently blocks a complete understanding of how cells work.
The 21st century already has a dominant focus on biology and we can expect to learn of many basic discoveries about cellular function as well as many new applications of our biological knowledge that will impact our health and well-being. We can expect new biofuels and novel treatments for disease. In the agricultural arena there will be major improvements in food plants to increase yield, use less water, resist pests and grow in increasingly harsh environments. On a political level, governments must embrace genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and not give way to the European prophets of doom, who oppose the use of GMOs for purely political purposes, despite a complete absence of evidence that they can cause any harm. To any well-informed scientist traditionally-bred plants seem much more likely to be harmful than GMOs.
We should be able to transform our growing knowledge of the human genome and its many variations into better treatments and diagnostics. It is just as important that we learn more about the bacteria that colonize our bodies since they too are an essential part of what it means to be human. While truly personal medicine is probably a long way off, there can be little doubt that it will mature and provide considerable health benefits.
Synthetic biology that will enable us to build novel microorganisms from scratch is still in its infancy, but promises much for the future. Most exciting is the promise of stem cells where the challenge is to understand how to drive their differentiation into all of the other cell types in our bodies. We have the prospect of using adult cells to derive pluripotent cells that can be grown to provide new parts to replace worn out ones such as kidneys or even hearts. The challenges are both daunting, in terms of the basic knowledge needed, as well exhilarating in terms of the future. While I do not advocate prolonging life indefinitely I am very much in favor of ensuring that as we age the quality of our life does not diminish.
I very much look forward to the talks we are about to hear and would encourage everyone, but especially the young people, to listen and let your imaginations run wild about the prospects for building on our current knowledge. The future is in your hands not ours.
