The
Future Of Drugs
By PHILIP ELMER-DEWITT
In an age in which so much of medical science is utterly incomprehensible--even
to other scientists--it's comforting to remind ourselves from time to time that a lot
of what passes for modern medicine is simply the refinement and repackaging of
ancient remedies. Digitalis from foxglove. Opiates from poppies. Aspirin from the
bark of willow trees. Even now, nearly 60% of the best-selling prescription drugs
in America's pharmacies are based on compounds taken directly from Mother
Nature's well-stocked armamentarium. It's as if there were a bright, healing
thread running from the medicine bags of shamans and witch doctors to today's
drugs for cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease.
But that's about to change. With the mapping of the genome--the twisted double
strand of DNA that carries the instructions for making every cell in the human
body--the process by which new drugs are developed is being turned upside down.
Trial and error, which is how medicines have been discovered for the past 100
years (and for millenniums before that), is yielding to drugs by design.
Increasingly scientists, armed with blueprints for our genes, can identify the
individual molecules that make us susceptible to a particular disease. With that
information--and some high-speed silicon-age machinery--they can build new
molecules that home in on their targets like well-aimed arrows.
How will this change our lives? The drugs we take? The pains we suffer? The
diseases that finally do us in? The answers are as surprising as the science that is
producing them. In the pages that follow we will try to give you a glimpse of the
future by looking over the shoulders of the scientists who are searching--both
genetically and the old-fashioned way--for tomorrow's miracle drugs. And in our
first A to Z guide to the year in medicine, we will review the advances and
setbacks--from aids cocktails to zinc supplements--that made 2000 such a
remarkable year for patients and doctors alike.
|
|
|
January 15, 2001
| No. 2
COVER
STORIES
MEDICINE:
The Future of Drugs
Now that our dna has been decoded, the search for better, faster and more
effective medications begins in earnest
THE
LABS: Inside the Brave New Pharmacy
At a leading genomics company, the star of the show is a robot
DISEASES:
The Search for Cures
For AIDS, cancer, mental illness, obesity, Alzheimer's, etc.
Antibiotics:
The microbes are winning
Delivery:
Beyond pills and needles
Natural remedies:
Turning poisons into potions
Recreational
drugs: What comes after K and ecstasy?
THE
YEAR IN MEDICINE: An A-to-Z guide
T
H E A R T S
CINEMA:
East meets West
in a film with universal appeal
Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller team up in a funny
farce
Three generations of Ralph Fiennes in Sunshine
MUSIC:
Erykah Badu's new CD has soul and guts
TRAVELER'S
ADVISORY
|
|
