From life-saving X-rays to the first organ transplant, major advances in medicine have transformed health care as we know it. Discoveries range from regenerative medicine—using cells, tissue engineering, and 3D printing to repair or replace diseased or injured tissues—to gene therapy—inserting new DNA into organisms to treat or prevent diseases.
The 20th century saw a host of medical breakthroughs—from the first face and eye transplant to a brain implant that enabled a man to speak again. From vaccines to cellular therapies, these advancements have dramatically improved diagnosis and treatment of disease, and enhanced patients’ quality of life.
Emil von Behring wins the first Nobel Prize in medicine for developing a treatment against deadly diphtheria, and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen earns the physics Nobel for discovering X-rays, which enable medical professionals to visualize a patient’s internal structures without cutting or injecting them. Surgical procedures improve and techniques become more precise. And in 1846, TG Morton and Frederick Banting make the first insulin injection, an innovation that has revolutionized the treatment of diabetes.
Immunosuppressant medications allow doctors to perform liver, pancreas, and kidney transplants; they also help them treat cancer with chemo and radiation. The discovery of cyclosporine in 1984 opens the door to transplants using live donors and extends life expectancy.
Genetic discoveries, including clustered regularly spaced interspersed palindromic repeats (CRISPR-Cas9) and mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, have ushered in a new era of precision medicine. Soon, treatments will be customized to a patient’s individual genes, microbiome and real-time health data. And regenerative medicines—which use cell or tissue engineering to restore or replace diseased or damaged tissue—will give doctors the tools they need to address the many ways that a patient’s chronic disease impacts their entire body and life.