Biomedical Education and Research: Expectations and Limitations

Gundu HR Rao*

Received: September 19, 2018;   Published: September 26, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.09.001787

Full Text PDF

To view the Full Article   Peer-reviewed Article PDF

Abstract

The Molecules in Medical Sciences is a course that is offered, to the first year Medical Students at the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge University, UK, which focuses on diseases, which will be familiar by name and of high relevance, -like diabetes and cancer. Harvard Medical School on the other hand, says,” preparation of medical school in the 21st century, should reflect contemporary developments in medical knowledge, the pace of discovery, and the permeation of biochemistry, cell biology, and genetics into most areas of medicine”. Oxford Royale Academy looks at biomedicine the following way, “Biochemistry, as the name suggests, is where Biology meets Chemistry: it is the study of the living things, at a molecular level- or, to put it another way, the study of the very foundations of life. At the Stanford University, the department of Biochemistry, founded by Arthur Kornberg, the Nobel Laureate, who received this award for his work on, “the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid”, focused for several decades, on DNA and RNA biochemistry.

The current approach is enormously diverse, with nearly everyone using interdisciplinary approaches of biochemistry, genetics, biophysics, structural biology, high resolution light microscopy, and other innovative methodologies. In addition to the training in human anatomy and physiology, present day medical students, also receive instruction in biochemistry, cell biology, embryology, nutrition, pathology, immunology, microbiology, molecular biology, neurobiology, nutrition, pathology, pharmacology, and virology. These foundational or basic sciences enable the future physician to understand, what constitutes the homeostasis of the healthy individual, the mechanisms by which that homeostasis is disrupted by disease, and how particular disease states may best be treated. New discoveries and advances, in these foundational sciences are so rapid, Harvard Medical School revises its curriculum fairly often. In a good well-rounded medical education, foundational sciences and clinical sciences are interdependent. Modern day biochemistry in the broadest sense, should provide needed insight into the underlying mechanisms of both structure and regulation, that occur at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and whole system level. In this overview, we will try and attempt, to use this broadest definition, to describe the origin, progression, risk development, and precipitation of acute events leading to death. We will also discuss expectations and limitations, as we try to sketch chain of events, in the development of metabolic risks, progression of metabolic diseases, and the precipitation of ultimate acute event.

Abstract | Biomedical Education | Biomedical Research | Discussion | Conclusion | References |