Molecules to Medicine Reflection

This chapter focuses on the use of the different molecules within the medicinal field. It discusses aspects such as side effects of certain drugs, the use, and the struggle to achieve the right medicine for certain illnesses or diseases. This chapter also explains how certain drugs were discovered such as Aspirin and Colchicine, which were both discovered from the method of finding the chemicals' cellular targets. It is interesting to know that some drugs were made unintentionally when scientists were working to discover something else. What stunned me was the fact that there are so many different brands of research such as genomics (the study of all of an organism's genetic material), proteomics (the study of all of an organism's proteins), and bioinformatics (using computers to sift through large amounts of biological data). I never even knew these words existed. If I had to explain what information from this chapter was new to me, I would say that 95 percent of the information here are novel to my knowledge. I would like to see the most recent information to compare what scientists have gained since this book.

Chapter 4 is important because everyone uses medicines every day, even me. Therefore, it is crucial to know information regarding how pharmacologists, chemists, and scientists came up with these different drugs. It is obvious that chemistry plays a huge part in this; measuring the sizes of particles and testing whether it is the right size to be inhale is huge. This aspect of medicine relies on chemistry heavily because chemistry involves particles, atoms, and such, and drugs cannot be made without the composition of molecules. The information presented here were very important because it adds to the overall population knowledge of medicine. I thought this whole chapter was useful; so there was no bad side.

Since over the past years, scientists were able to unravel other potential uses for different drugs, it could be predicted that more uses for many existing drugs will be discover in the future. Some of which could contribute to the cure for cancer or other serious diseases; this idea is not too farfetched since researchers have discovered the drug Gleevec, which could be used to treat a rare cancer of the blood called chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). One career choice that I am interested in is pediatrician. Therefore, this information will serve useful in the future. It will allow me to appreciate the process and the existence of these different medicines. I will also be more aware of the drugs when I prescribe it to my patients. Maybe, I will expand on it in the future and create the cure for cancer one day.