Made to order medication

There has been considerable progress made after the human DNA blueprint was untangled in making medication.  Now that the genes and their mutations are known, making specific medication to target that mutation is easier. There are less clinical trials involved and the drugs take less time to devlop.

Scientists are now demystifying the genes that mutate to cause cancer. The science project is a large scale international one where each cancer will get mapped in 200 patients. Then the research will begin to see why the mutations occur on a molecular level.

Once the mechanism of the cancer cells is understood, it will be used to form medication that can prevent the mutation or at least halt it once it begins. Such made to order medication will be really useful for cancer patients who have a short time to live and no time for trial and error in their medicine choice.

It is such ongoing science projects that contribute to the better health care opportunities that we as patients receive today. Sitting in a lab and mapping genes may not seem very Earth shaking, but it is useful and productive work which can save lives.  A small idea can become a large project and that is how you can contribute as well. Try out more science projects here.