5 world medicine breakthroughs 2009

2009 is a year without many impressive breakthroughs but every breakthrough brings great benefits to public health or opens new hopes for all humanity.

1. Create stem cells from mouse skin

Creating a laboratory mouse is not difficult if it is to inject sperm into an egg. However, creating a mouse capable of reproducing from a few skin cells is worth a breakthrough. This is a versatile skin cell, also called iPS cell.

This finding opens up the possibility of human cloning easily with human skin cells instead of embryonic stem cells.

This mouse was created from two independent laboratories in China and information was published in July.

2. Manufacturing AIDS vaccines

In the field of more failures than this success, the fact that experts develop a more effective new vaccine often suffers from skepticism. Last September, $ 105 billion was used for the purpose of combining two old vaccines and delivering positive results. More than 16,000 volunteers received the new vaccine and the results showed that the vaccine protected 31% of the vaccinated subjects. Although efficacy is modest, it is of great significance when behavioral prevention methods such as condom use are not effective.

3. Manufacturing vaccines against influenza A / H1N1

Although controversial due to unwanted side effects, the successful creation of the A / H1N1 influenza vaccine has somewhat eased the tension about the spread of H1N1 virus.

Earlier, April 21 was the opening day when the US Centers for Disease Control said it was opening an investigation into two cases of new, unknown flu strains. Soon after, A / H1N1 flu (the influenza strain of swine flu, bird flu and human flu) quickly spread around the globe, becoming the focus of more than 100 countries around the world during the summer months. and fall. And the concern about another wave of pandemics is not over when the winter is passing through many countries including Vietnam.

4. Detecting brown fat in adults

When you're struggling to button your shirt over your waist, you never wonder if your body fat is brown or white? But maybe you should find the answer because the researchers found that brown fat, because these cells are surrounded by dark mitochondria that are able to break down sugar molecules in the heart. and consume more energy than white fat (in other words, brown fat burns energy instead of reserves) in adults.

Previously, researchers found that brown fat was abundant in the fetus and newborn - those who needed it to warm the body in the womb and at birth, unfamiliar with the environment. new. When growing up, brown fat will disappear and white fat will prevail.

The latest research shows that in adults, brown fat is concentrated in the front and back of the neck, according to Swedish researchers. This work was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April. Two other studies published in the same journal also showed that lean people tend to store more fat than those who are obese and brown fat cells are also more active in price weather. cold.

5. Radiology - Breast cancer detection technique for age 50

This is considered to be a Washington scandal when in the scientific world there is a debate: what age should this technique be done to bring maximum benefits to women. Finally, based on the new calculation taking into consideration the risks and benefits of mammograms, the US government recognizes that women aged 50 (instead of 40 as before) should take photos. Radiology for early detection of disease. The remaining subjects should periodically check their 2 breasts by hand because the scan is too early to increase other risks.

Of course, no method of testing is considered perfect, that is, out of 100 women who have a positive test result, 23 do not have breast cancer, but out of every 100 people have negative results. 6 people actually have breast cancer. Therefore, false positive and false negative results are one of the deficiencies of breast cancer screening by radiography.