Modern medicine has brought huge health benefits. Now researchers want to go further.
To avoid antibiotic resistance undoing a century’s worth of progress, researchers are racing to restock the antibacterial armoury. Others are exploiting the data generated by ubiquitous computers and smartphones to better anticipate outbreaks of infectious disease.
With the potential for gain so great, the prevention of illness is playing an ever-larger part in medicine. Intervention to protect people from long-term disease could begin in the first moments after birth. And although a decline in health in later life might seem normal, there is ongoing debate about where healthy ageing ends and disease begins.
Work to exert greater control over rogue immune systems, as well as to develop technological solutions to paralysis, is showing initial promise. The advent of CRISPR–Cas genome editing has raised hopes for widespread use of gene therapy; meanwhile, this technology is also aiding the search for new drugs. As long as barriers to accessing the best treatments available can be negotiated away, the future of medicine could be very bright indeed.
Via
Krishan Maggon ,
Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek