Medical breakthroughs have radically improved disease diagnosis, treatment and management, significantly increasing patient outcomes and quality of life [1]. These advancements include new pharmaceutical therapies, medical devices, genetic engineering, organ transplantation and much more.
The first medical Nobel Prize, in 1901, honoured Emil von Behring for his discovery of a treatment for deadly diphtheria. The same year Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen won the physics Nobel Prize for his discovery of X-rays that revolutionised imaging. During the course of the next century, other significant breakthroughs would include antibiotics that cured infections and paved the way for modern medicine. Insulin was the first drug to control chronic disease, allowing millions to live long and healthy lives.
Stony Brook researchers have contributed to many of the world’s biggest medical advances. From antibiotics and vaccines to 3D printing and organ transplantation, their pioneering research is improving health outcomes globally.
A chemistry professor has a Eureka moment inside a Pennsylvania Big Boy and develops a technique for generating detailed images of internal tissue using nuclear magnetic resonance data. This groundbreaking invention, known as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), has revolutionised medical diagnostics and surgery.
Other breakthrough discoveries that have changed the face of medicine include Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers finding a gene that predisposes to colon cancer, enabling patients to be diagnosed early. Brigham and Women’s surgeons perform the nation’s first triple-organ transplant, removing two lungs and a heart from one donor and giving three patients a new lease on life.