the journey

Behind every pill there is an exciting and complex journey driven by the hope, determination and hard work of scientists. Many important but challenging choices need to be made along the way, but scientists keep moving forward, dedicating their lives to making ours better

engineering health?

Engineers are problem solvers, and our own health is full of problems to be engineered. In this episode we discuss drug discovery and drug delivery. We’ll explore everything from classical and reverse pharmacology to the new field of synthetic biology. We’ll also look at how important good disease detection is and why we need more targeted drug delivery systems. What is Capsaicin?

II of V: the journey of medical research

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I of V: How to Engineer Health

How does body process

medicine?

Have you ever wondered what happens to a painkiller, like ibuprofen, after you swallow it? Medicine that slides down your throat can help treat a headache, a sore back, or a throbbing sprained ankle. But how does it get where it needs to go in the first place? Céline Valéry explains how your body processes medicine.

What is personalized medicine?

The theory has been that everyone should get the same care based on clinical trials. Personalized Medicine is the concept that managing a patient's health should be based on the individual patient's specific characteristics, including age, gender, height/weight, diet, environment, etc.

Potential applications of personalized medicine Personalized medicine aims to identify individuals at risk for common diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

The simple family history has long been used by physicians to identify individuals at increased risk and to advise preventive measures such as lifestyle modifications (changes in diet, cessation of toxic habits, increased exercise) earlier screening, or even prophylactic medications or surgery.

Scientific advancements offer the potential to define an individual's risk based on their genetic make-up.

Fields of Translational Research termed "-omics" (genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) study the contribution of genes, proteins, and metabolic pathways to human physiology and variations of these pathways that can lead to disease susceptibility.

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III of V: How does your body process medicine?

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Iv of V: What is personalized medicine?

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V of V:  what is precision medicine?

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It is hoped that these fields will enable new approaches to diagnosis, drug development, and individualized therapy. Pharmacogenetics Pharmacogenetics (also termed pharmacogenomics) is the field of study that examines the impact of genetic variation on the response to medications.

This approach is aimed at tailoring drug therapy at a dosage that is most appropriate for an individual patient, with the potential benefits of increasing the efficacy and safety of medications.

Gene-centered research may also speed the development of novel therapeutics.