Stalwarts around the world-The game changers

– Dr. Madhura Mandlik, MS(Obs-Gyn)

We live in the era of modern medicine. History is studded with gems, who made medicine and health care what it is, today. As we explore world medicine in this issue, let’s look at the scientists and doctors who have made human life easier. Their names and life stories highlight the importance of resilience and courage, and the fact that nothing comes easy!

INDIA:

Har Gobind Khorana

Deciphered the genetic code and role of nucleotides in protein synthesis (Nobel Prize 1968). He and his team identified CODONS that code for amino acids. They even deciphered the start and stop codons in protein synthesis.

Kamal Jayasing Ranadive

Her research also extended to the study of Mycobacterium leprae, the bacteria that causes leprosy, which eventually contributed to the development of a leprosy vaccine. She won the Padma Bhushan in 1982

CHINA:

Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou, hails from China, and was involved in discovering Artemesinin, a wonder drug for malaria. In 2015, she won she own the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine.

JAPAN:

Kitasato Shibasaburō

Kitasato Shibasaburo, was a Japanese physician and bacteriologist who helped discover a method to prevent tetanus and diphtheria and, in the same year as Alexandre Yersin, discovered the infectious agent responsible for the bubonic plague.

Shinya Yamanaka

In 2012, he and John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells.

Tasuku Honjo

Discovered PD-1 immune checkpoint, leading to cancer immunotherapy (Nobel Prize 2018).

PD-1 (Programmed cell Death protein 1) is an immune checkpoint protein found on T cells (a type of immune cell) that acts as an “off switch” or brake to prevent the immune system from attacking healthy cells

EUROPE:

Roland Ross

A member of the Indian Medical Service and later professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, he was a Scottish physician who discovered that mosquitoes transmitted malaria.

Robert Koch

He was a German physician and microbiologist. Having discovered organisms causing infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he is regarded as one of the main founders of modern bacteriology. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905. The day he announced the discovery of the tuberculosis bacterium, 24 March 1882, has been observed by the World Health Organization as “World Tuberculosis Day” every year since 1982.

Niels Ryberg Finsen

He was a physician and scientist born in Denmark. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903, in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation.

René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec

He was a was a French physician who conceptualised the stethoscope in 1816. He noticed school children transmitting sound along a wooden beam by scratching one end and listening at the other. This demonstrated how solid materials could carry and amplify vibrations. Being a skilled flautist, Laennec understood how hollow tubes could channel sound effectively, which likely influenced his decision to roll up a sheet of paper into a tube for his first stethoscope.

Louis Pasteur

He demonstrated that microorganisms, not spontaneous generation, were responsible for fermentation and spoilage. He developed the process of heating liquids (like milk and wine) to a specific temperature to kill harmful microbes. Pasteur created vaccines for several deadly diseases, including rabies, anthrax, and chicken cholera. His rabies vaccine, successfully tested in 1885, saved the life of a young boy, Joseph Meister, and established the principle of preventive vaccination.

Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou

Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou, was a Greek physician, pathologist, and pioneer of cytology, best known for developing the Pap smear test, which revolutionized early detection of cervical cancer.

Camillo Golgi

Bartolomeo Camillo Emilio Golgi was an Italian physician, who won the Nobel prize in 1906. He discovered the intracellular organelle, the Golgi body and was pivotal in advances in field of neuroscience, as well.

Severo Ochoa

Spanish-American physician and biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in 1959 (with Arthur Kornberg) for discovering mechanisms of RNA synthesis.

Emil Theodor Kocher

Emil Theodor Kocher, was a Swiss surgeon, who won the Nobel prize in 1909, the first surgeon to have won this prize. He is known for revolutionizing thyroid surgery. By introducing strict antiseptic methods, careful hemostasis, and new surgical techniques, he reduced mortality rates from 50% to less than 1%. The Kocher’s clamp, a everyday surgical instrument, is named after him

AUSTRALIA:

Elizabeth Blackburn

Elizabeth Blackburn is an Australian-American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate known for her groundbreaking research on telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Her discoveries have been foundational to the understanding of cellular aging, cancer, and other diseases. She won the Nobel Prize in 2009.

Peter Doherty

Peter Charles Doherty, is an Australian immunologist and his work mainly focused on how T cells recognise their target antigens in combination with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins. He won the Nobel Prize in 1996, for his work.

UNITED STATES:

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

American medical physicist who co-developed the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique, which can measure tiny concentrations of biological substances in the blood. This discovery, made with her partner Solomon Berson, revolutionized endocrinology and medical research, and earned Yalow a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1977.

Jennifer Doudna

Jennifer Doudna is an American biochemist, best known for her groundbreaking co-discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic editing tool, for which she won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Sources:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Har_Gobind_Khorana_nobel.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamal_Ranadive

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kitasato_Shibasaburo

https://breakthroughprize.org/Uploads/photo988.jpg

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2018/honjo/facts