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Various vaccinations were created to combat some of the world’s deadliest diseases
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Although there had been countless earlier experiments with anaesthesia dating as far back to 4000 BC – William T. G. Morton made history in 1846 when he successfully used ether as an anaesthetic during surgery.
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In 1861, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur proved through a simple experiment that infectious disease was a result of an invasion of specific microscopic organisms into living hosts.
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The first instance of machines that produced medical imaging were X-rays. The X-ray was ‘accidently’ invented in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rӧntgen when experimenting with electrical currents through glass cathode-ray tubes.
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Alexander Fleming’s penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic, completely transformed the world of medicine. Famously, the Scottish biologist accidently discovered the anti-bacterial ‘mould’ in a petri dish in 1928.
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In December 1954, the first successful kidney transplant was carried out by Dr Joseph Murray and Dr David Hume in Boston, MA.
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Unlike the sweeping success of anti-biotics in the late 1930s and 1940s, the development of antivirals did not really take off until the 1960s. This was mostly due to the structure of a virus, which was a core of genetic material surrounded by a protective protein coat that hides and reproduces inside a person’s cells.
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The incredible potential of stem cells was discovered in the late 1970s, when they were found inside human cord blood. Research is currently ongoing to use stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries and a number of neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’ and strokes.
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In April 2003, scientists announced they had completed a draft sequencing of the human genome, or all the genes that make up ou DNA. Gene sequencing has helped researchers identify single genes that cause diseases.
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Treating HIV used to require a schedule that was difficult to adhere to, especially for those in developing countries. Atripla changed that by combining three antiretroviral drugs into one daily "cocktail" pill.
