Susan Lindquist's career was devoted on studying the role of proteins in genetic functions'. Man’s quality of life has increased dramatically, not just in certain regions of the globe but worldwide. One of the reasons for this is the fact that we have made significant technological progression – new innovations have enabled us to live longer and more comfortably. However, medical innovations alone are not sufficient to improve the standards of healthcare overall – Ultimately, it is the medical doctors who are responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of their patients, making them essential in healthcare institutions. Here we look at 3 doctors who have contributed greatly to medicine. They may have passed on, but their impact on healthcare will always be remembered. 1. W. Dudley Johnson, 1930 – 2016 Dr Johnson was the pioneer of the lifesaving cardiac bypass surgery. Throughout the world, he was known for being able to heal heart patients who were considered terminal. Many doctors would simply advice their patients to take good care of the health and/or wait for a heart transplant. However, he was a diligent and dedicated doctor who performed 8,500 surgeries on patients in his lifetime, across four decades. His initial breakthrough defied initial scepticism within the medical fraternity, and heralded the dawn of a new era of successful double, triple and quadruple bypass surgeries. Later, he pioneered the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass pump (also known as “heart-lung machine); this was used in cardiopulmonary bypass, which is a technique that temporarily takes over the heart and lungs when a patient is undergoing surgery, maintaining the circulation of blood and oxygen in the patient’s body. However, he did have his shortcomings, and some of his actions had sparked controversy. He refused to operate on AIDS patients, citing concerns about contamination by blood. Furthermore, even amidst cold war tensions, he chose to perform heart surgery in Communist Cuba. Above all, he emphasised that heart bypass surgery was not the ultimate cure for heart diseases; it was prevention. 2. Susan Lindquist, 1949 – 2016 Susan Lindquist was a molecular biologist who pioneered the use of yeast proteins to shed light on gene functioning and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Her career was largely devoted on studying how proteins changed shape during cell division in order to carry out genetic functions. This was a process known as protein folding, which can go awry and cause neurodegenerative disorders, cystic fibrosis and some cancers. Her research analysed the root causes of Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans, as well as scrapie (fatal, degenerative disease that affect both goats and sheep) and mad cow disease in animals. Lindquist was able to prove that protein-folding errors occurred in all species and that biological changes could be passed from one generation to the next through proteins alone, without the participation of RNA or DNA. Previously, this process was thought to be impossible. In 2006, she published a series of experiments, whereby she and her team introduced a Parkinson’s gene into a yeast cell, tested 5,000 genes, and isolated one gene with a protein that saved the yeast cell. Her findings were replicated and developed on further successfully by other labs, saving the neurons of fruit flies and rats. With this breakthrough, man is now one step closer towards finding an eventual cure for Parkinson’s. 3. Carl Wood, 1929 – 2011 Carl Wood had led the team that established the In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), a method used to treat human infertility. He successfully achieved the world’s first test-tube pregnancy in Melbourne, Australia. This had occurred in 1973. Despite the fact that the woman had miscarried after three months, it was still deemed as a huge medical breakthrough. Additionally, it paved the way for Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards's first successful test-tube baby five years later in Britain. In 1983, he again transformed the gynaecological arena, establishing the world’s first pregnancy from a frozen embryo. The couple had grappled with infertility for seven years; the baby was hence a great joy to them. In that same year, he successfully performed the first human donor egg transplant, implanting eggs donated from a 42-year-old to an infertile woman aged 38. However, she unfortunately miscarried after three months.Later on, he and his team pioneered the use of fertility drugs to produce multiple eggs, which could then be frozen. This consequently led to a dramatic increase in the IVF success rate; it also reduced the need for mothers to go under the knife. Producing and freezing multiple eggs has now become a standard technique that has resulted in more than 5 million IVF babies across the world. In 1986 he pioneered the world's first IVF baby using sperm retrieval surgery. Additionally, he was responsible for the first microinjection intrafallopian transfer IVF baby in the world, which he achieved in 1992 Source
