If you are a professional who prefers to be up to date with industry trends and remember the best contributions of these winners to medical science. Don’t miss this top of the Nobel Prize winners who impacted medical care.
Nobel Prize winners who impacted healthcare
Ronald Ross (1902)
Once upon a time, military medical officer Ronald Ross began his work in West Africa to find a cure for malaria in 1899.
The disease commonly occurs in the tropics and causes a high fever along with other conditions. Because the researchers found malaria only in the human bloodstream, the medical community theorized that mosquitoes spread the disease. In 1897, Ross’s work with insects confirmed this fact.
Frederick Grant Banting and John James Rickard Macleod (1923)
In 1921, Banting conducted research with Macleod, along with Charles Best, to show that a substance called trypsin degraded the body’s natural production of insulin. In their experiments, the researchers stopped trypsin production in dogs, allowing them to extract insulin to treat diabetes patients.
Karl Landsteiner (1930)
In the early 1900s, blood transfusions were generally unsuccessful. Landsteiner discovered that people have different blood types and that clotting occurs when different blood types mix. Landsteiner’s work led to blood type compatibility and increased positive transfusion outcomes.
Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas (1990)
The blood cells, which are synthesized in the bone marrow, protect the body from diseases such as leukemia. In the mid-1950s, Donnall developed a technique for replenishing bone marrow cells through blood transfusion. Around the same time, the ability to transfer organs from one patient to another eluded surgeons.
Murray developed a technique using radiation therapy and immunosuppressants to discourage the body’s tendency to reject donor organs. Because of his discoveries, the researchers shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine that year.
Paul C. Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield (2003)
Magnetic fields govern molecular motion. However, specific radio wave frequencies alter this natural characteristic. In the 1970s, Lauterbur and Mansfield applied this knowledge to develop a technique for recording images of internal human physiology.
The technique, which measures hydrogen atoms and variations in water content, led to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. The researchers shared the Nobel Prize for “discoveries related to MRI.”
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen (2008)
Scientists define genomes that contain ribonucleic acid (RNA) that can enter host deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as retroviruses.
Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier discovered a retrovirus, later called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which caused Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This revelation led to better treatments for people diagnosed with AIDS.
Genes prevent tumors by regulating cell division, a process that retroviruses can disrupt. In 1983, Hausen showed that the papillomavirus causes cervical cancer, which at the time represented the second most common cause of female tumors. During this award year, the Nobel Prize Committee shared recognition with Hausen for “his discovery of human papillomaviruses that cause cervical cancer” and Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier for “his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus” .
Robert G. Edwards (2010)
Some couples experience fertility difficulties. In the late 1970s, Edwards developed the concept of removing female eggs and fertilizing them in test tubes. With associates, she successfully developed a procedure to retrieve eggs from the ovaries. The first in vitro fertilized birth took place in 1978.
The Nobel Prize embodies the crown jewel of a career. Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine produce life-changing innovations. Each achievement lays the foundation for future medical advances. While it is impossible to plan a career around winning the Nobel Prize, leaving an outstanding legacy is an achievement in itself.
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