Transformative Advances in Science and Healthcare: 1950-2024

Major advances in science in our lifetime have transformed healthcare and enabled the breakthroughs in medicine we enjoy today. We will explore the chronology of advances in the lab, and how they impact our health care. The study of diseases and discovery of new drugs has evolved from animal testing and growing bacteria in petri dishes, to lab bench testing of enzymes and proteins and growth and use of cancer, diseased, or normal cells in the lab for drug discovery. We can now grow viruses, produce more effective and safer vaccines, test antiviral agents, use optics, automation, computer modeling, and artificial intelligence. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are something new, and critically important, but what enabled them? Organ transplants are now possible, but in addition, liver cells are recovered from donated organs and used for safety assessment of drugs and cosmetics rather than using animals. I will talk about the many uses of blood and surgical tissues donated by patients and the relatively new field of patient-to-lab research. Examples: We will be able to determine the immediate and long-term impact on humans and animals of a chemical spill in as little as five days. We will be able to predict risk of cardiovascular disease at birth, make lifestyle changes in youth and develop drugs to prevent the actual physical changes that lead to a heart attack. Although ethical concerns will have to be considered, we should be able to predict those at high risk for schizophrenia and to develop medications taken in one’s teens to minimize the risk. The list goes on. I will be sharing my excitement at these transformations, how they have impacted our treatments and visits to the doctor, and end with what is evolving today that will be transformative tomorrow.