Medicinal Advances

By MarianD816
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    Medicinal Advances

  • Felix Hoffman develops aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid).

    Felix Hoffman develops aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid). The juice from willow tree bark had been used as early as 400 BC to relieve pain. 19th century scientists knew that it was the salicylic acid in the willow that made it work, but it irritated the lining of the mouth and stomach. Hoffman synthesizes acetyl salicylic acid, developing what is now the most widely used medicine in the world.

  • Frederick Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins.

    Frederick Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins and suggests that a lack of vitamins causes scurvy and rickets.

  • Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin.

    Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin – important for the treatment of diabetes.

  • Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.

  • Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine.

    which was later available in 1955.

  • George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion create antiviral drugs.

  • Kaery Mullis discovers the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

  • SRI International creates Electroactive Polymer (Artificial Muscle)

  • Kenneth Matsumura discovers how to make the first artificial liver.