Medical masterminds

Medical masterminds The super scientists who made breakthroughs in HEALTHCARE

These trailblazers transformed medicine, bringing the treatments and cures to save the lives of millions.

Variola is the virus that causes smallpox, producing fever and rashes.

Edward Jenner

In the 18th century, England’s deadliest disease was SMALLPOX. English doctor Edward Jenner found that introducing a mild dose of cowpox (a similar, less dangerous disease) prepared the human body to fight smallpox. In 1796, Jenner’s smallpox vaccine became the world’s first successful vaccine, eventually helping to wipe out the disease.

Jonas Salk

American microbiologist Jonas Salk developed the first effective polio vaccine after years of medical research and testing. Declared safe in 1955, more than 200 MILLION

VACCINES were administered in the USA in the following two years. Polio, which usually affects young children, has now been eradicated in all but a handful of countries.

The polio virus attacks the spinal cord, leading to paralysis.

German doctor Paul Ehrlich along with his assistant Sahachiro Hata discovered that a chemical containing arsenic could work as an effective treatment for syphilis, a bacterial disease. Ehrlich established that chemicals could be used to treat diseases, naming this process

CHEMOTHERAPY. His work on the human immune system won him the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1908.

The deadly HIV virus has killed millions of people.

Treponema pallidum causes syphilis.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

In 1983, French virologist Françoise

Barré-Sinoussi discovered that HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) attacks the human body’s immune system, causing

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) – a disease that weakens a person’s ability to fight infection. Her work led to an increasing awareness of HIV and AIDS, and to better treatments for patients. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2008.

Joshua Lederberg

American geneticist Joshua Lederberg studied bacteria molecules and discovered they could transfer genes between each other. For his work on the genetic arrangement of bacteria, he shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

His work laid the foundations for GENETIC

ENGINEERING, the scientific modification of genetic material inside living things.

E. coli, one of the bacteria studied by Lederberg

Clever chemists

Chemists are in their element when experimentation leads to new discoveries and developments. They start small by breaking down simple substances to understand the chemical composition before throwing different things into the mix. This has triggered a chain reaction of monumental milestones over centuries of chemical research.