5It is obvious that the progress made during the past few decades surpasses that
made in the whole of previous medical history. Modern medicine is considered
to start in the nineteenth century although several important discoveries, notably
smallpox vaccine were made close to the end of the eighteenth century. Modern
pharmaceuticals and drug discovery started to develop in the twentieth century with
most of the advances taking place in the second half and the most important ones in
the last decade.
The role of physicians in making necessary judgments about the medicines that
they prescribe has often been referred to as an art, refl ecting the lack of objective
data available to make decisions that are tailored to individual patients. Now we are
on the verge of being able to identify inherited differences between individuals,
which can predict each patient’s response to a medicine. Review of history of
medicine shows that development of personalized medicine will be an evolution and
not revolution in medicine. Medicine has always been evolving and will continue to
evolve although the progress may appear slow at times. Some remarkable discover-
ies such as the double helix of DNA and polymerase chain reaction did not have an
immediate impact on practice of medicine.
Table 1.2 (continued)Era/year Medical system/concept
1959 Defi nition of the special fi eld of pharmacogenetics combining the
techniques of pharmacology and genetics (Vogel 1959 )
1962 Publication of the fi rst monograph on pharmacogenetics (Kalow 1962 )
1968 Development of principles of population screening, which later formed the
basis of application of genetics for population screening (Wilson and
Jungner 1968)
1980–1990 Further developments in scientifi c pharmacology. Characterization of
receptors by ligand-binding studies. Start of impact of molecular biology
on pharmacology
1985 Discovery of polymerase chain reaction (Mullis et al. 1986 )
1986 Coining of the word “Genomics” by Roderick as title of the journal, which
started publication in 1987 (Kuska 1998)
1990–2000 The genomic decade. Sequencing of the human genome. Parallel
miniaturization in robotics and computer systems. Application of
genomic technologies to drug development: pharmacogenomics. Cell
and gene therapies
1993 Concept of using molecular nanotechnology to base medical therapy on the
biochemical individuality of specifi c patients (Fahy 1993 )
1995 Coining of the term “proteomics” (Wilkins et al. 1995 )
1997 The term “pharmacogenomics” appears in the literature (Marshall 1997 )
1998 First monograph with the title “Personalized Medicine and
Pharmacogenetics (Jain 1998 ), published by Decision Resources Inc.
2000 Sequencing of the human genome completed
2001–2010 Post-genomic decade. Impact of genomics combined with proteomics in
drug discovery and development. Development of personalized medicine
and integration of diagnosis with therapy in healthcare
2008 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act passed in the US
© Jain PharmaBiotech
History of Medical Concepts Relevant to Personalized Medicine