Robert E. Smith
Park University,USA
Title: Modern Medicinal Chemistry. A Fusion of Traditional and Western Medicine
Biography
Biography: Robert E. Smith
Abstract
Modern medicinal and pharmaceutical sciences have become a fusion of traditional and western medicine. It is a fusion of the best of reductionist and systems thinking. That is, the reductionist thinking that is used in math, physics and engineering is being combined with systems theory to develop new drugs. Statistics, bioinformatics, graph theory and 3-D printing are used to study cellular and metabolic networks and provide personalized health care. Systems thinking is an integral part of predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory (P4) medicine. It takes not just a holistic but also a quantitative and mathematical approach to practicing medicine. Traditional remedies are being analyzed to find natural sources of drugs. The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to the scientist who found the active ingredient artemisinin in quinghao (Artemisia annua) that is has been the first line therapy for treating malaria for years. Also, exenatide from the saliva of a venomous Gila monster has become a blockbuster drug for type-2 diabetes. Allosteric and allo-network drugs are being developed that have multiple therapeutic targets. The FDA has a Critical Path Initiative for modernizing drug development. It incorporates recent scientific advances into the process of developing new drugs and medical. These efforts are ushering in a new era of personalized health care that will be able to prevent, diagnose and properly treat diseases with the help of patients and their care givers.