6. Advances in knowledge of the immune system (especially middle to late 1900's)

Knowledge of the complicated molecular mechanisms that the body uses to reject foreign substances led to the ability to influence the immune system with drugs and biological agents. This made the transplantation of organs (heart, lung, liver, kidneys) possible. The eventual control of the AIDS virus, the most virulent new infectious agent of the 1900's, depends on this knowledge.

 

C. Anderson Hedberg is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center and Rush Medical College. His Top 10 list mainly discusses the major developments in health and medicine. He cites far-reaching advances in the fight against disease and identifies a number of technological developments that had major impacts on human betterment.

1.

The discovery of the genetic code (1953)
2. The control and prevention of infectious diseases (middle to late 1900's)
3. The development of surgical and anesthetic techniques (middle to late 1900's)
4.

The invention of the transistor (1947) and the computer (mid-1900's)
5. The development of machines that replace organ function (middle to late 1900's)
6. Advances in knowledge of the immune system (middle to late 1900's)
7. The first use of insulin to treat diabetes mellitus (1922)
8. The discovery and development of medicine to control depression and other psychiatric illnesses (middle to late 1900's)
9. Gaining understanding of the influence of the environment and addictions in causing disease (middle to late 1900's)
10. The widespread application of the scientic method to discover and evaluate biological processes and therapeutic measures (throughout the 1900's)