Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078313281

Series E: Patient-Centered Medicine 

Series Content Consultant: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century

&

Interviews with Scientific Leaders

2017

Available on Amazon.com since December 9, 2017

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078313281

Author, Curator and Editor

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Chief Scientific Officer

Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence

Larry.bernstein@gmail.com

Image Source: Courtesy of Shutterstock

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Editor-in-Chief BioMed e-Series of e-Books

Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence, Boston

avivalev-ari@alum.berkeley.edu

List of Contributors & Contributors’ Biographies

Volume Author, Curator and Editor

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Preface, all Introductions, all Summaries and Epilogue

Part One:

1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3, 2.4, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.5, 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.6.3, 2.6.4, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

Part Two:

5.2, 5.3, 5.6, 6.1.2, 6.1.4, 6.2.1, 6.2.2, 6.3.2, 6.3.4, 6.3.5, 6.3.6, 6.3.8, 6.3.10, 6.4.1, 6.4.2, 6.5.1.2, 6.5.1.3, 6.5.2.2, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 8.9.1, 8.9.3, 8.9.4, 8.9.5, 8.9.6, 8.10.1, 8.10.2, 8.10.3, 8.10.4, 9.2, 9.3, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.11, 9.12, 9.13, 9.14, 9.15, 9.16, 10.2, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.10, 10.11, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9, 12.10, 12.11, 12.12, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.6, 13.12, 13.13, 14.1, 14.2

Guest Authors:

Pnina Abir-Am, PhD 

Part Two: 6.1.1

Stephen J Williams, PhD:

Part Two: 6.2.6, 6.5.2, 6.5.2.2, 10.4, 10.9, 13.4

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN:

Part One:

1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.7, 2.2.1, 2.3

Part Two:

5.1, 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.11, 6.1.3, 6.2.3, 6.2.4, 6.2.5, 6.3.1, 6.3.3, 6.3.7, 6.3.9, 6.4.3, 6.5.1.1, 6.5.2, 6.5.2.1, 6.5.2.2, 6.5.3.1, 6.5.4, 6.5.5, 6,5,6, 8.9.2, 8.10.2, 9.1, 9.4, 10.1, 10.3, 11.4, 12.6, 13.5, 13.7, 13.8, 13.9, 13.10, 13.11

Adam Sonnenberg, BSC, MSc(c) In 2021: PhD, Medical Student 2^nd year

Part Two: 13.9

Editorials in the electronic Table of Contents

Preface and Volume Introduction

In PART ONE: Physician as Authors, Writers in Medicine and Educator in Public Health we cover Physicians as Authors, Professional Recognition, Medical and Allied Health Sciences Education and Science Teaching in Math and Technology (STEM). In PART TWO: Medical Scientific Discoveries & Interviews with Scientific Leaders we cover the Cardiovascular System, Genomics, The RNAs, Proteomics, Protein-folding, and Cell Regulation, Neuroscience, Microbiology & Immunology, Endocrine Hormones, Stem Cells, 3D Printing and Medical Application and Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry.

Discoveries in medical and biological sciences e-Book identifies many heroes of our time, just as it describes a trend of development in the related and allied professions. A more integrated structure is emerging. The future of medical research and the practice of medicine will be more highly dependent on integrated work of professionals who have complementary skills. This is a challenge for current and future education.

Why 21st Century is in Celebration of Medical Discoveries and its HEROES?

In the year 2017, we have had a remarkable activity in discoveries in physics, astrophysics, organic and inorganic chemistry, biology and evolution, and engineering that is enlightening our living on planet earth. At the same time, we are faced with incomparably difficult times in grappling with unending culture wars, natural and human disasters, disease, and large inequalities in opportunities that endangers human populations. The progress in sciences has led to advances in microbiology and virology, pharmacology, and medicine and allied health care. The advances have not been fully shared across the globe. This book is intended to first recognize the kind of educational opportunities and the choices that accomplished people have made to reach this plateau that has seen the decoding of the human gene, the birth of genetic engineering, and the dissection of vital metabolic signaling pathways essential for the understanding of life, disease, and death.

This is the second volume in the Patient-centered Medicine e-Series. Its focus is articles on medical discoveries. We covered already the late 19th to the late 20th Century in an article. There were many discoveries of Nobel Prize stature by scientists and physicians in physics, chemistry, infectious disease, immunology, and the emergence of biochemical genetic and molecular biology. The second volume is focused on achievements and the scientists of distinction in the late 20th and early 21st Century. In developing this series, we considered the sources of major national and international awards, and the recognition of the professional societies. The achievements in proteomics, genomics, cell signaling and gene targeting are well covered, as well as endocrinology, neurology, and regenerative and stem cell research. Reference to Content: Medical biographies; Interviews with scientists; Awards and recognition; Science education; Health Sciences preparation; Childhood education; Flexner report; Accreditation; video reports. Life science categories; Science based medical specialties.

This series of articles follows an earlier article on scientific discoveries of the late 19th and 20th centuries. However, it is noteworthy to consider that the lifetime achievements recognized in the first decade of the 21st millennium reach back to an accumulation of half a century of sustained research. These articles provide a significant amount of insight and background for understanding the motivations of the contributors over a productive lifetime, and also confirms the repeated observation of influential exposures to the work of other innovators. The material contains interviews with investigators, peer comments about their mentoring of young investigators, and also some very interesting background on childhood experiences. The biographical content is as interesting as the discoveries and honors discussed.

PART ONE

Physician as Authors, Writers in Medicine and 

Educator in Public Health

Introduction

This first portion of the book is concentrated on recognizing some of many individuals who have been recognized for their achievements in biomedical science and to provide a glimpse at the structure of the profession of medicine. Even beyond that, it gives notice to the educational requirements and what is being done to meet the needs in the not distant future of students who would aspire to work in the healthcare and healthcare research professions. The needs have rapidly expanded, and the available caregivers has not kept up with the growth of an aging population.

Chapter 1:         Physicians as Authors

Introduction

In the 19th century we saw the emergence of a social class of educated European people, that also had a growth in the United States and Canada. The immigrant population had a strong desire to make a difference in society, and parents wanted them to ascend a ladder of opportunity. This chapter identifies a selection of physicians who excelled in written communication, in short stories, novels, plays, not to mention composing.  One of the great examples is Anton Checkov, who also wrote about the prisons in Russia.

Summary

We have seen some examples of individuals who pursued medical careers because Medicine is a valued profession. While some practiced medicine and wrote, others had a magnificent career in writing. Somerset Maugham and Arthur Conan Doyle are two such examples of the latter. Not covered is the development of a profession of medical and science writers, such as, Gina Kolata. Science reporting is becoming an important bridge between scientific discovery and public perception of science.

Chapter 2:         Professional Recognition

Introduction

The identification of significant accomplishments requires reviewing the recognition by key professional organizations. Much of this follows in Part II. The New York Academy of Sciences has long been a leading, though not exclusive organization for the advancement of science. There is also treatment of the “Genius” Awards, and not to be missed is the huge untold story of the “women computers” in WWII. This chapter also opens the gate to a view of medicine that is not in the direct view of the patient, but vital for disease discovery and treatment.

Summary

Radiologists, anesthesiologists, and pathologists have been called RAP physicians. They have played a vital role in patient management that has actually become more specialized with progress in medicine.  The success in diagnostic imaging has expanded with greatly improved technology, and it includes both noninvasive and invasive procedures, and do also has radiotherapy become essential and has become highly targeted. Anesthesiologist are masters of general and local pain alleviation, and they are expert in drug interactions.  The pathology profession has become highly specialized in carcinomas and sarcomas, and the practice of clinical pathology is a rapidly growing segment because of diagnostic instrumentation, automation, and minimum specimen requirement.

Chapter 3:          Medical and Allied Health Sciences Education

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the education of physicians and nurses, but there is a parallel pathway in the preparation of medical technologists, radiotherapists, physiotherapists, and anesthetist. The education in preparation for these professions is regulated and programs receive accreditation from such organization as the AMA, American Nursing Association, and National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Sciences (NAACLS).

Summary

The chapter has not detailed the policy set forth in the Flexner Report, the emergence of Johns Hopkins University as an innovation in medical education, or of Rockefeller University as an innovation in medical research. It is important to realize that the preparation of physicians, and professionals in the health sciences professions rose to a previously unknown level after the Flexner Report.  It is also important to recognize, as we had in the Halstedian view to breast cancer, that the great physician Sir William Osler taught an Oslerian view of compassionate medicine that required the generation of physicians who were well knowledgeable in literature and the arts.  If this caused the restriction of medical students to a “privileged class”, that was not the intent.  Unfortunately, the Oslerian model gave way to an emphasis on organic chemistry and genetics with the emerging concept of “hereditary disease”.

Chapter 4:         Science Teaching in Mathematics and Technology (STEM)

Introduction

This chapter illuminates the importance of science education at an earlier stage than the college level.  The community colleges are not mentioned, but that is a stepping stone in preparation.  The most important purpose of preparation is the mastery of critical thinking. Teaching of science and mathematics has improved and begins at the preschool level.  The importance of television and video media intended for childhood education is described.

Summary

The child is endowed with curiosity. the curiosity can be expanded or quenched, depending on the attention given to children during early development.  This has become a problem of social class and of the single parent home.  However, single parentage is not necessarily a disadvantage.  The social and home environment are important factors in advancing childhood learning.

PART TWO

Medical Scientific Discoveries 

& 

Interviews with Scientific Leaders

Chapter 5:         Cardiovascular System

Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases have been comprehensively covered in several volumes of the LPBI’s BioMed e-Series:

Six volumes are BUNDLED BY AMAZON.COM INTO A SIX-VOLUME SERIES FOR $515

https://lnkd.in/e6WkMgF

Six Volumes in English Text

• Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms, on Amazon since 6/2/12013

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DINFFYC

• Cardiovascular, Volume Two: Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation, on Amazon since 11/30/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018Q5MCN8

• Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Three: Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics, on Amazon since 11/29/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018PNHJ84

• Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four: Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases, on Amazon since 12/26/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019UM909A

• Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Five: Pharmacological Agents in Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases. On com since 12/23/2018

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MGSFDWR

• Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Six: Interventional Cardiology for Disease Diagnosis and Cardiac Surgery for Condition Treatment. On com since 12/24/2018

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MKHDBHF

This chapter has a specific focus on the contributions of major investigators to the developing story of leaders in cardiovascular disease.

Summary

This chapter has been to illuminate the medical, surgical and pharmaceutical advances that have been huge in the last 30 years. It is a story that has been highly enriched by biomedical engineering, and that improved life expectancy.

Chapter 6:         Genomics

Introduction

An introduction to molecular biology and biochemistry with the focus on DNA would not be complete without the following inclusion of Stent and Delbruck at the beginning, and overlapping the seminal work of Watson and Crick. Although Delbruck came under the influence of Niels Bohr, the importance of his work with Lise Meitner was new to me. My own introduction was instigated by my reading of both Stent and of Schroedinger, who are mentioned here.

In the chapter that follows, we are introduced to the controversy that accompanied the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Francis Crick and James Watson for the unlocking of the genetic code. DNA is the molecule that carries most of the genetic instructions used in the development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses. DNA is a nucleic acid; alongside proteins and carbohydrates, nucleic acids compose the three major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life. Most DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer strands coiled around each other to form a double helix. The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides since they are composed of simpler units called nucleotides.^[1] Each nucleotide is composed of a nitrogen-containing nucleobase —either cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), or thymine (T) — as well as a monosaccharide sugar called deoxyribose and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. According to base pairing rules (A with T, and C with G), hydrogen bonds bind the nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands to make double-stranded DNA.

Unrecognized was the huge contribution made by Rosalind Franklin, who died of cancer prior to the Nobel Prize award nomination in 1953. There are also two giant figures of this period who are not explored in this chapter.

Gunther S. Stent was Graduate Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Born: March 28, 1924, Berlin, Germany

Died: June 12, 2008, Haverford, PA

GUNTHER S. STENT March 28, 1924–June 12, 2008 BY SAMUEL H. BARONDES

Gunther Stent’s professional interests progressed in stages from the simple to the complex: from physical chemistry to molecular biology to neuroscience to philosophy. One feature remained constant: his gift for writing about his ideas in well-crafted prose. Born into a prosperous and assimilated Jewish family in Treptow, a suburb of Berlin, Stent’s childhood was disrupted by a series of traumatic events that began when he was nine. First, the Nazis came to power and the persecution of Jews began. Shortly thereafter, his chronically depressed mother, Elli, was hospitalized in a psychiatric sanitarium, and subsequently committed suicide. By 1938 in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, his father, Georg, fled to London to escape the Gestapo, and the 14-year-old Gunther joined him later after illegally crossing the border into Belgium. By the age of 16 Gunther had made it to Chicago, where he moved in with his married sister, Claire. Matriculated as a freshman at Hyde Park High, Stent worked furiously to make up for lost time. By taking extra courses and going to summer school he managed to graduate in 21 months. In the process he came under the influence of his composition teacher, Miss Rubovits, who taught him how to write, and to whom he always remained grateful.

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/stent-gunther.pdf

A professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Stent was among the handful of scientists who after World War II pioneered the discipline of molecular biology, a field that essentially reduced biology to the study of chemical and physical interactions in and between cells.

Along with James Watson and Francis Crick, he was part of the original “phage group,” an informal club of scientists who tackled the mysteries of DNA and the gene in the 1950s and ’60s. Watson and Crick later won the Nobel Prize for discovery of the structure of DNA.

“Gunther was part of the intellectual glue that kept this small band of pioneers together,” said Michael Botchan, co-chair and professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

A polymath, Stent was known not only for his studies on the metabolism of bacteria and neurobiology of leeches, but also for his writing on the history and philosophy of biology. For many years, he taught a freshman seminar on consciousness, and he wrote a 2002 book, “Paradoxes of Free Will,” that won the 2002 John F. Lewis Award of the American Philosophical Society. He also published books on morality as a biological phenomenon, prematurity in science and the end of biology.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/06/17_stentobit.shtml

Gunther Stent credited his interest in biology to the fact that he met Sol Spiegelman at a party in 1945. Stent was a graduate student at the University of Illinois, where Spiegelman—who would go on to develop nucleic acid hybridization and win a Lasker Award for other work—was a visiting seminar speaker. Stent read one of Spiegelman’s papers. “On the fi rst two pages of that paper I was amazed to fi nd an inelegant derivation of the same standard equations which, in my sophomore year, I had to derive in a few minutes on an exam in the Doc’s physical chemistry course”, Stent later recalled in his self-published 1998 memoir, Nazis, Women and Molecular Biology. He asked a friend: “Wouldn’t microbiology be a good fi eld for me to get into if it takes so little to have a paper published?” Stent’s memoir, and his life, was full of that kind of self deprecation. (His memoir is also fi lled with a seemingly endless list of women he pursued and eventually lost.) Born Gunther Siegmund Stensch in Berlin, in 1924, he had emigrated to the USA when he was 14 years old. Landing in Chicago, he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1945, and then began his graduate studies, with a year spent screening technical documents in Germany after the war.

http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673608610594.pdf

After meeting Spiegelman, he read Erwin Schrodinger’s What is Life? Like Seymour Benzer the book led him to Max Delbruck’s laboratory at Caltech, in Pasadena, on a postdoctoral fellowship. There and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he took Delbruck’s famous phage biology course, he was surrounded by other like-minded scientists who would become giants in the burgeoning field of molecular biology: James Watson, Salvador Luria, Alfred Hershey, and Renato Dulbecco.

Stent’s first project was an attempt to figure out why a particular bacteriophage, strain T4, did not attach to its bacterial host unless it came into contact with tryptophan. In 1952, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley. He used radio labelled bacteriophage to confirm DNA’s double helix structure in 1954, a year after Watson and Francis Crick published their famous report. In 1957, he helped found the school’s department of virology. In 1963, Stent wrote Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses, which Watson told The New York Times was “the textbook that became the most exciting tool for the study of molecular genetics following the finding of the double helix”. He trained a number of leading scientists, including Sydney Brenner, who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his work on developmental genetics. Over the next decades, he turned his attention to philosophy. He argued in The Coming of the Golden Age: A View of the End of Progress that scientists had learned everything they could about molecular biology. When John Horgan, author of The End of Science, interviewed him in 1992, he acknowledged that biologists still had a lot to learn. “But I think the big picture is basically over”, he said. Evolutionary biology in particular “was over when Darwin published The Origin of Species”. Many of his colleagues, of course, disagreed. He also studied neuroscience, using the leech as a model. (He also shared a patent on hementin, an anticoagulant derived from leeches.) One of his most-cited papers was a 1973 study of what happens at the synapse during learning (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1973; 70: 997–1001). Stent wrote or edited several other books, including the reissue of Watson’s The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, and Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology. His 2002 book Paradoxes of Free Will win the 2002 John F Lewis Award of the American Philosophical Society.

http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673608610594.pdf

Max Delbruck

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/delbruck-bio.html

Among his friendships during the later student years, the most intense and influential one was with Werner Brock, now emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Freiburg.

There followed three postdoctoral years (1929-1932) abroad, in England, Switzerland, and Denmark. The stay in England, with its immersion into a new language and a new culture, had a vast effect on widening his outlook on life. In Switzerland and Denmark the associations with Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr shaped his attitude toward the pursuit of truth in science.

Delbrück’s interest in biology was first aroused by Bohr, in connection with his speculations that the complementarity argument of quantum mechanics might have wide applications to other fields of scientific endeavor and especially in regard to the relations between physics and biology. A move to Berlin in 1932, as assistant to Lise Meither, was largely motivated by the hope that the proximity of the various Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes to each other would facilitate the beginning of an acquaintance with the problems of biology. Paradoxically, this good intention was helped by the rise of Nazism which made official seminars less interesting. A small group of physicists and biologists began to meet privately beginning about 1934. To this group belonged N. W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky (genetics). Out of these meetings grew a paper by Timofeeff, Zimmer, and Delbrück on mutagenesis. A popularization of this paper of 1935 in Schroedinger‘s little book «What is Life?» (1945) had a curiously strong influence on the development of molecular biology in the late 1940’s.

The move to the United States in 1937 was made possible by a second fellowship of the Rockefeller Foundation, permitting Delbrück to pursue with greater freedom and effectiveness his interests in biology. He chose Caltech because of its strength in Drosophila genetics, and to some extent because of its distance from the impending perils at home. Although his job in Germany seemed reasonably secure, it was clear that political reasons would bar him from advancement.

Delbrück, Max. Interview by Carolyn Harding. Pasadena, California, July 14- September 11, 1978. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Delbruck_M

Nobel Prize: “for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses”

Interview in 1978 with Max Delbrück, professor of biology emeritus, begins with his recollections of growing up in an academic family in Berlin. Trained at Göttingen in the late 1920s as a theoretical physicist, he later switched to biology, inspired by Niels Bohr to investigate the applications of complementarity to biological phenomena. After postgraduate work at Bristol and Copenhagen, he returned to Berlin in 1932 to work for Lise Meitner and formed a “club” of theoretical physicists, biologists, and biochemists, who met for discussions at his mother’s house.

Recollections of the advent of the Nazis in 1933. In 1937 Delbrück left Berlin for Caltech on a Rockefeller Fellowship; he defends the decision of other German scientists, notably Heisenberg, to remain in Germany. At Caltech he began working in Drosophila genetics but quickly shifted to phage work with Emory Ellis. Moved to Vanderbilt University in 1940, where he remained for seven years; comments on Oswald Avery’s identification of DNA as the “transforming principle.”

Recalls his association with Salvador Luria and summer phage group at Cold Spring Harbor in the 1940s; joint letter with Linus Pauling to Science in 1940 on intermolecular forces in biological processes; his http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Delbruck_M reaction to 1945 publication of Erwin Schrödinger’s What is Life? Returned to Caltech in 1947 as professor of biology; comments on activities of Biology Division under chairmen George W. Beadle and Ray Owen, and the psychobiology of Roger Sperry. Recalls 1953 Watson-Crick discovery of the structure of DNA; comments on Watson as director of Cold Spring Harbor and on The Double Helix. Comments on receiving (with Luria and Alfred Hershey) the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Summary

It is important to realize the impact of breaking the genetic code, a seminal event in the 20^th century. It changed the course of biochemistry for the remainder of the century, eventually leading to the “human genome project.” But the story is incomplete as we shall see the mapping of translation of the code into protein, and the discovery of noncoding genes, the role of protein and of RNA in the regulation of cell metabolic pathways. It is of great interest that the early work in molecular biology focused on the virus, a non-metabolizing carrier of either DNA or RNA, and on the effect of radiation on mutagenesis. The chapter is followed by the studies of RNA. The emergence of molecular biology in this century has uncovered important revisions in our comprehension of transcription and more importantly, cellular metabolic regulation. The genetic code is only an imprint to be transmitted from one generation to the next. The metabolism and its adaptation in the life of an organism can’t be understood without and understanding of RNA and proteomics in relationship to very fast changes in the environment.

Chapter 7:         The RNAs

Introduction

The classical model holds that DNA is transcribed from complementary mRNA to rRNA, with protein synthesis in the ribosome. There is also a non-nuclear, mitochondrial DNA. The classical role of RNA is transcription. A revised modern hypothesis is found in the discoveries of RNA in inhibition of transcription, and having a role in cell signaling and regulatory processes, as explained in the following discussion.

Summary

The RNA story has become a fascinating discovery of the emergence of biochemistry, regulation of metabolic pathways, and signaling pathways. This opens a reawakening of biochemistry to the possibility, with the help of powerful separation and analytical technology to a close observation of the living cell.

Chapter 8:         Proteomics, Protein-folding, and Cell Regulation

Introduction

The functioning of the living cell depends on the structure and function of proteins, glycoproteins, and lipoproteins. These are embedded in the cell membrane, which has continuity between the extracellular membrane and intracellular structures. The functioning protein domain has a subset called enzymes, which are involved in catalytic activities. These reside within the cytoplasm, at cell junctions, in the mitochondria, and on cell surfaces. They are essential to the functioning of the differentiated cell and essential to the interaction of the cell with its extracellular matrix. This encompasses the discussions in the chapter that follows.

Summary

Proteomics, Protein-folding, and Cell Regulation

A mapping of the human proteome has been done for some eukaryotes, and is incomplete for the human case. It is important to recognize that there are numerous instances of protein “isoforms” that are bio-similars that nuance cell function in animals and man. This has a significant linkage to both organ differentiation and to evolutionary changes. The developments in proteomics have been huge because of continuing work in instrumentation and in mathematical algorithms that feed into a tie between proteomics and phenotypes. There is still much more to be done in the identification of cardiovascular disease and cancer biomarkers, and in addition infectious disease and the exploding work on the microbiome.

Protein folding

Introduction

The story of protein folding was highlighted by the work of Jakob and Monod. It was a gateway to understanding metabolism. This was a game opener. Who would have predicted the discoveries that followed? That is the material to be found in this chapter.

Protein folding

Summary

Protein folding has become a gateway to understanding biochemistry, metabolism and physiology, and importantly, is a gateway to the understanding of a group of transmissible diseases – such as Kuru and JCD. That is still a beginning because it now appears that protein folding, by way of prions, even though it has a relationship to disease by way of tau protein and amyloid, it has a relationship to cognitive function. This work has an important future.

Chapter 9:         Neuroscience

Introduction

Several chapters that follow are not unrelated. They envision an evolving understanding of medicine that is emerging from discoveries in the functioning of the midbrain that are critical for cognitive function, and for endocrine regulation that resides in the pituitary gland, but is in feedback regulation through the amygdala.

Summary

These chapters have covered major contributions to the related fields of neurobiology, psychiatry, and medicine as an integrated physiological unit as not previously understood. Major contributors to this understanding, still in infancy have been presented. A beginning construction of the mind-body concept has been made.

Chapter 10:       Microbiology & Immunology

Introduction

This chapter contains selected articles covering important discoveries in immunology and microbiology. These include the current work on the “Gut Microbiome”, the emergence of modified surgical mastectomy based on the regional lymph node metastasis, the developments in modern pathology to a much more diverse treatment of diseases and methods, the emergence of hematology as a specialty from which oncology diverged, and the T-cell mediated immune response.

Summary

This chapter has highlighted some important concepts in microbiology and virology, in cancer of blood and solid tumors, at least with respect to lymph node resection, and the elucidation of T-cell mediated immunity. There has been a considerable recognition given to the leaders in these developments.

Chapter 11:       Endocrine Hormones

Introduction

This chapter covers the major advances in our understanding of pituitary, thyroid, parathyroids, adrenal, pituitary-adrenal axis, the sex hormones, and the pancreas. It is a picture that has had enormous expansion in the last 25 years. It is a good reason for the development of the medical subspecialty of endocrinology, and the further specialization in diabetes mellitus. It is not coincidental in ties to head and neck surgery.

Summary

This chapter has recognized important work with respect to obesity, and individuals who have made notable contributions. In addition, there has been seminal work on the gene retinoid receptor that is tied to the synthesis of a group of fatty soluble hormones, such as, vitamins A and D, and more.

Endocrinology is a large and blossoming corner in the history of modern medicine. This chapter has illuminated the problems and identified significant figures in the development of the knowledge of this field.

Chapter 12:       Stem Cells

Introduction

This chapter contains descriptions of some of the most exciting work ongoing in regenerative biology, standing out as an achievement in developmental biology. There is seminal work in the discovery of the stem cell, which has been akin to the philosopher’s stone, except that there is such a transition state. The story goes further and reaches into the genetic engineering of cells by reprogramming, and the discovery of CRISPER.

Summary

We have seen some major research that is ongoing and not yet complete with respect to stem cells, cancer, reprogramming of mature cells in tissue engineering, CRISPER/Cas mediated genome engineering, and targeted gene modification, and the scientist who have led in this novel research.

Chapter 13:       3D Printing and Medical Application

Introduction

3-D Printing and its applications is a new endeavor that includes nonmedical invention as well as medical applications. The work is rapidly evolving and it constitutes an arena for tissue engineering, drug dosing and printing and artificial organ production and design.

Summary

We have reviewed the development of a whole new field of tissue engineering that will have a role in the future of medical treatment. Developments in this endeavor will also involve a science of nanotechnology.

Chapter 14:       Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry

Introduction

This is a chapter that identifies major work in organic, inorganic, and medicinal chemistry

Summary to Part Two

The second part of this volume is more directed at the growth of remarkable discoveries in the health related sciences since the late-20^th century. There have been observations that discovery has slowed. I cannot share such a view. It has become difficult to follow the rapid progress that is achieved in a step-by-step order. There is always reference to “serendipitous” discoveries, but for such an event it requires a prepared mind. A problem that has existed in the reliance on large funding for so much of research and the implementation using mathematics, computers, and advanced spectroscopy for discovery, is that there is a significant skew to the direction of research, and in the current state of expenditure it is more difficult for young investigators to enter with new ideas. Perhaps it has always been that way, but the scope of the work needed is much larger than ever before.

Volume Summary and Conclusions

This series of articles follows an earlier volume on scientific discoveries of the late 19th and 20th centuries. However, it is noteworthy to consider that the lifetime achievements recognized in the first decade of the 21st millennium reach back to an accumulation of half a century of sustained research. These articles provide a significant amount of insight and background to understanding the motivations of the contributors over a productive lifetime, and also confirms the repeated observation of influential exposures to other innovators. The material contains interviews with investigators, peer comments about their mentoring of young investigators, and also some very interesting background on childhood experiences. The biographical content is as interesting as the discoveries and honors discussed.

EPILOGUE

The second volume of the discoveries in medical and biological sciences series identifies many heroes of our time, just as it describes a trend of development in the related or supporting professions. The relationships have not always been clear, but a more integrated structure is emerging. The future of medical research and the practice of medicine with be more highly dependent on integrated work of professionals who have complementary skills. This is a challenge for current and future education.

Volume Two 

Autor, redactor y editor:

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Medical Scientific Discoveries for the

21st Century

&

Interviews with Scientific Leaders

On Amazon.com since 09/12/2017

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078313281