Biomedical sciences

The biomedical sciences are fields of study that apply aspects of science—most notably biology and chemistry—to health care. A concise definition of the biomedical sciences is difficult, as the field encompasses a wide and varying range of disciplines. One common element is that biomedical sciences are predominantly research and laboratory-based fields. In general, the field can be broken down into three basic categories: life sciences, physiological sciences, and bioengineering. Life sciences can include fields such as microbiology, toxicology, and cell biology. The physiological sciences study the chemical and biological workings of living beings, while bioengineering merges biomedical sciences with technology and engineering to develop solutions to improve human health. A prime example of the impact of biomedical sciences on the modern world was the cooperative effort undertaken in 2020 to develop a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background

Researchers believe that prehistoric humans viewed illness and disease as a natural part of life or a result of divine intervention. As a result, they likely did little to figure out why they were ill or try to fix their health problems. The earliest known medical approach to illness was recorded about 2700 BCE by an Egyptian physician named Imhotep who listed symptoms and treatments for more than two hundred conditions and diseases. Doctors in ancient Mesopotamia and India also attempted to diagnose and treat illnesses, although many of their methods bordered on ritual and magic. About four thousand years ago, a Chinese medical text noted that the heart pumped blood through the body and the pulse was a sign of this blood circulation.

While the Greeks and Romans built upon this ancient knowledge to develop more advanced medical treatments, they were both held back by the prevailing superstitions of the times. Most people believed that illnesses were caused by the angry gods, or the presence of evil spirits. Greek and Roman physicians thought sickness was caused by an imbalance of four bodily substances called humors. If there was too much or too little of one or more of these substances—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—the body became sick until the imbalance was corrected.

Perceptions about medicine began to change during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the onset of the scientific revolution in Europe. Instead of falling back on religious or mystical explanations for the natural world, scientists and physicians began to rely on logic and reason as the basis for their discoveries. In the late seventeenth century, Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used a microscope to identify red blood cells and observe bacteria. In the 1790s, British physician Edward Jenner developed the first successful vaccine, an inoculation against smallpox. By the nineteenth century, doctors and researchers had developed methods for blood transfusions, anesthetics, and discovered that microscopic germs were the cause of most disease. Medical science took an even greater leap forward in the twentieth century with the development of penicillin, the first organ transplants, and the discovery of DNA.

Overview

Modern biomedical sciences evolved out of the centuries of research and development by thousands of physicians and scientists from around the world. It is impossible to pinpoint an exact moment when the discipline began or even to adequately narrow it down to a concise definition. Some define it solely as an application of biology to the healthcare field, while others incorporate chemistry and other natural sciences into the definition. The biomedical sciences are commonly broken down into three subsets: life sciences, physiological sciences, and bioengineering. These definitions are not universally followed, and individual fields within the divisions often overlap.

Life sciences

Life sciences are simply the study of life on Earth. This includes the more than 8.7 million species of animals, four hundred thousand species of plants, and trillions of microorganisms. While life sciences can include fields such as botany and zoology, the biomedical sciences are chiefly concerned with studying the smaller forms of life, as they are the ones that have more of an effect on human health.

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Microorganisms exist everywhere on Earth and can be both helpful and beneficial to humans. They are responsible for aiding several life-sustaining bodily processes, such as digestion but can also cause serious illness. By studying how these organisms behave, grow, and interact with other organisms, microbiologists can determine how to enhance their beneficial qualities and mitigate harmful microorganisms.

For example, in 1796, Edward Jenner’s study of the cowpox virus led him to modify its use as a vaccine to fight smallpox, one of the deadliest viruses in human history. In 1928, Scottish researcher Alexander Fleming noticed how mold that accidentally grew on a lab plate of staphylococcus bacteria killed the microorganism. From this discovery, Fleming was able to create penicillin, the first effective antibiotic.

Some definitions of microbiology superficially limit its study to bacteria—which are single-celled living organisms—parasites, fungi, and similar organisms. These definitions do not include the study of viruses, which are single strands of genetic material such as DNA covered in a protein coat. Viruses are sometimes excluded from the category because the scientific community is divided over whether viruses are truly alive. Scientists who study viruses are referred to as virologists.

Toxicology is a biomedical science that studies the effects of potentially dangerous substances on the human body. In addition to studying poisons and harmful chemicals, toxicologists also study the effects that seemingly harmless substances can have on the body. For example, arsenic is a harmful poison, but the human body can process small amounts. The common pain reliver aspirin may help cure a headache, but using too much can also prove harmful. Toxicologists, who have backgrounds in biology and chemistry, can identify potentially harmful chemicals and determine the proper amount of a medicine or substance that a person should take. Some aspects of toxicology have applications in criminal justice.

Cell biology is the study of the function and structure of cells, the biological building blocks that make up the human body. This field studies the metabolic processes that power the cell, what the cell is made of, and how it reproduces. Cell biologists also study how the various parts of the cell signal one another to perform its various functions. In a related field, cytology is the study of specific single cells to screen for and diagnose diseases such as cancer and some birth abnormalities.

Genetics is a branch of biomedical science that goes even deeper and studies genetic material within the cells, specifically how that material results in a person’s genetic makeup and how that information is passed down through the generations. The concept of genetics was first observed in the nineteenth century, but the true potential of the science was not realized until after the discovery of DNA in the 1950s and later advances in DNA analysis and other applications. Advances in the field have allowed researchers to determine hereditary factors, such as where a person’s ancestors came from, and predict the likelihood of future health problems, such as cancer.

Physiological sciences

The physiological sciences study how the human body works, from the physics responsible for basic functions, to the way its molecules interact, to how the organs work in relation to one another. While anatomy describes the physical structures of the human body, the physiological sciences study how those structures function. Like most biomedical sciences, physiological studies include mostly research positions and lab work.

The physiological sciences are often broken down into specialized fields with research focusing on a specific organ or body system. For example, the cardiovascular system deals with the heart and blood vessels that pump the blood though the body; the digestive system is the system of organs—stomach, intestines, etc.—that help the body break down and digest food; the immune system aids the body in fighting off disease; while the nervous system consists of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves that send and carry messages throughout the body.

Scientists and researchers in these specific fields can devote their attention to a single cell or cellular protein to see how it affects the workings of the organ or the bodily system as a whole. They may also study the interaction between groups of cells to see how they function and form the body’s systems and organs. They can also gather and examine information about a person’s physiology from procedures such as electrocardiograms (EKGs) or blood tests to determine potential issues.

Bioengineering

Bioengineering is a form of biomedical science that combines medicine, chemistry, and biology with engineering and technology. The field is geared toward creating solutions for medical problems by developing vaccines, devices, products, robotics, and more. These include simple products such as artificial hips, hearing aids, or imaging equipment. On the more high-tech end, bioengineering can seem like science fiction with robotic surgeons and microscopic robots that can hunt down cancer cells from within the body.

Bioengineers in the twenty-first century have developed the ability to build a “scaffold” of material upon which human tissue can be regrown and used in certain medical procedures. Although the only approved application for this procedure as of 2021 is in growing artificial skin and cartilage for grafts and transplants, scientists hope that the process can one day be used to regrow organs. Researchers have also developed patches that can be worn on the skin that release medication into the bloodstream automatically. In this way, patients can receive the proper amount of medication without worrying about forgetting a dose.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Perhaps the most high-profile example of the impact of biomedical sciences was illustrated in 2020 when the scientific community responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. A virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, appeared in China in late 2019 and by early 2020 had spread across the world, infecting and killing millions. Within weeks after the first outbreak, Chinese scientists had identified the virus by its genetic code and released that information to the rest of the scientific community. Researchers around the world began the search for a vaccine, aided by the financial cooperation of many of the world’s governments.

While vaccines typically take several years to be approved, biomedical researchers had a head start. For more than a decade they had been working on ways to use the body’s own genetics to “trick” it into generating an immune response. Using messenger RNA (mRNA)—a strand of genetic material sent out from the cell nucleus to carry instructions to other parts of the cell—scientists were able to create a harmless protein spike from the SARS-CoV-2 on the surface of a cell. The body recognized the spike and created antibodies to fight the illness. The researchers were able to “program” the mRNA using the genetic code cracked by Chinese scientists.

Two of the mRNA vaccines—by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna—were eventually approved for emergency use in December 2020. In clinical trials, both were found to be more than 90 percent effective against the virus. Through the work of many biomedical scientists, the vaccines were able to help in significantly slowing the spread of COVID-19 in countries with wide access to vaccines by mid-2021.

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