Medicine and genetic engineering: just another method or a new paradigm?
Scientific and technical developments have influenced medicine in a more profound way than any other cultural forces. In our days, molecular biology appears to be the major scientific factor which forms medicine. To those who practise medicine in the clinical environment, this statement may come as a surprise; however, if one looks at therapeutic and diagnostic research, the magnitude of change becomes evident. Most of these changes can still be interpreted in the context of known categories. In the analysis of the human genome, as well as in somatic gene therapy, however, a new principle emerges which will change our understanding of disease in a profound way. The scientific interpretation of disease as well as of diagnosis and therapy was first based on a morphological paradigm, which can be traced back to R. Virchow as well as to his contemporaries and successors. This powerful paradigm was later complemented by a chemical or biochemical paradigm which turned out to be extremely useful: modern diagnostics based on clinical chemistry as well as drug therapy are direct consequences of this influence. The new understanding of disease, diagnosis and treatment, which molecular biology is affording, is centered around the concept of genetic information. Diseases can be interpreted as informational deficits, as manifestations of faulty, inadequate or surplus information. While disease was previously interpreted on the basis of alterations in form and function it can now be seen as a derangement of the flow of information within cells, between cells, and between organs. The consequences for strategies of diagnosis and treatment will be profound.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Drews
J
J
F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd, Forschungsleitung, Basle, Switzerland.
D000818:Animals; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D008967:Molecular Biology