Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)
[Biomedicine]
" NCI Dictionary of Cancer Medicine. National Cancer Institute. is a branch of
medical science that applies biological and physiological principles to
clinical practice. Biomedicine stresses standardized, evidence-based treatment validated through biological research, with treatment administered via formally trained doctors, nurses, and other such licensed practitioners.
Biomedicine also can relate to many other categories in
health and biological related fields. It has been the dominant system of medicine in the
Western world for more than a century.
It includes many biomedical disciplines and areas of specialty that typically contain the "bio-" prefix such as
molecular biology,
biochemistry,
biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
,
cell biology,
embryology,
nanobiotechnology,
biological engineering, laboratory
medical biology,
cytogenetics,
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...
,
gene therapy,
bioinformatics,
biostatistics
Biostatistics (also known as biometry) is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...
,
systems biology,
neuroscience,
microbiology,
virology,
immunology,
parasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their host (biology), hosts, and the relationship between them. As a List of biology disciplines, biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in questio ...
,
physiology,
pathology,
anatomy,
toxicology, and many others that generally concern
life sciences as applied to
medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
.
Overview
Biomedicine is the cornerstone of modern
health care and
laboratory diagnostics. It concerns a wide range of scientific and technological approaches: from
in vitro diagnostics to
in vitro fertilisation, from the molecular mechanisms of
cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...
to the population dynamics of the
HIV virus, from the understanding of molecular interactions to the study of
carcinogenesis, from a
single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) to
gene therapy.
Biomedicine is based on
molecular biology and combines all issues of developing
molecular medicine into large-scale structural and functional relationships of the human
genome,
transcriptome,
proteome,
physiome and
metabolome with the particular point of view of devising new technologies for prediction, diagnosis and therapy.
Biomedicine involves the study of (
patho-)
physiological processes with methods from
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
and
physiology. Approaches range from understanding
molecular interactions to the study of the consequences at the
in vivo level. These processes are studied with the particular point of view of devising new strategies for
diagnosis and
therapy.
Depending on the severity of the disease, biomedicine pinpoints a problem within a patient and fixes the problem through medical intervention. Medicine focuses on curing diseases rather than improving one's health.
In social sciences biomedicine is described somewhat differently. Through an anthropological lens biomedicine extends beyond the realm of biology and scientific facts; it is a
socio-cultural system which collectively represents reality. While biomedicine is traditionally thought to have no bias due to the evidence-based practices, Gaines & Davis-Floyd (2004) highlight that biomedicine itself has a cultural basis and this is because biomedicine reflects the norms and values of its creators.
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the process of synthesis and regulation of a cell's DNA, RNA, and protein. Molecular biology consists of different techniques including Polymerase chain reaction, Gel electrophoresis, and macromolecule blotting to manipulate DNA.
Polymerase chain reaction is done by placing a mixture of the desired DNA,
DNA polymerase,
primers, and
nucleotide bases into a machine. The machine heats up and cools down at various temperatures to break the hydrogen bonds binding the DNA and allows the nucleotide bases to be added onto the two DNA templates after it has been separated.
Gel electrophoresis is a technique used to identify similar DNA between two unknown samples of DNA. This process is done by first preparing an agarose gel. This jelly-like sheet will have wells for DNA to be poured into. An electric current is applied so that the DNA, which is negatively charged due to its
phosphate
Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus.
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...
groups is attracted to the positive electrode. Different rows of DNA will move at different speeds because some DNA pieces are larger than others. Thus if two DNA samples show a similar pattern on the gel electrophoresis, one can tell that these DNA samples match.
Macromolecule
blotting is a process performed after gel electrophoresis. An alkaline solution is prepared in a container. A sponge is placed into the solution and an agarose gel is placed on top of the sponge. Next, nitrocellulose paper is placed on top of the agarose gel and a paper towels are added on top of the nitrocellulose paper to apply pressure. The alkaline solution is drawn upwards towards the paper towel. During this process, the DNA denatures in the alkaline solution and is carried upwards to the nitrocellulose paper. The paper is then placed into a plastic bag and filled with a solution full of the DNA fragments, called the probe, found in the desired sample of DNA. The probes anneal to the complementary DNA of the bands already found on the nitrocellulose sample. Afterwards, probes are washed off and the only ones present are the ones that have annealed to complementary DNA on the paper. Next the paper is stuck onto an x ray film. The radioactivity of the probes creates black bands on the film, called an autoradiograph. As a result, only similar patterns of DNA to that of the probe are present on the film. This allows us the compare similar DNA sequences of multiple DNA samples. The overall process results in a precise reading of similarities in both similar and different DNA sample.
Biochemistry
Biochemistry is the science of the chemical processes which takes place within living organisms. Living organisms need essential elements to survive, among which are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, calcium, and phosphorus. These elements make up the four macromolecules that living organisms need to survive: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
Carbohydrates
A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ma ...
, made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, are energy-storing molecules. The simplest carbohydrate is
glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
(CHO) which is used in cellular respiration to produce ATP,
adenosine triphosphate, which supplies cells with energy.
Proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, re ...
are chains of amino acids that function, among other things, to contract skeletal muscle, as catalysts, as transport molecules, and as storage molecules. Protein catalysts can facilitate biochemical processes by lowering the
activation energy of a reaction. Hemoglobins are also proteins, carrying oxygen to an organism's cells.
Lipids, also known as fats, are small molecules derived from biochemical subunits from either the
ketoacyl or
isoprene groups. Creating eight distinct categories:
fatty acids,
glycerolipids,
glycerophospholipids,
sphingolipids,
saccharolipids, and
polyketides (derived from condensation of
ketoacyl subunits); and
sterol lipids and
prenol lipids (derived from condensation of
isoprene subunits). Their primary purpose is to store energy over the long term. Due to their unique structure, lipids provide more than twice the amount of energy that
carbohydrates do. Lipids can also be used as insulation. Moreover, lipids can be used in hormone production to maintain a healthy hormonal balance and provide structure to cell membranes.
Nucleic acids are a key component of DNA, the main genetic information-storing substance, found oftentimes in the cell nucleus, and controls the metabolic processes of the cell. DNA consists of two complementary antiparallel strands consisting of varying patterns of nucleotides. RNA is a single strand of DNA, which is transcribed from DNA and used for DNA translation, which is the process for making proteins out of RNA sequences.
See also
References
External links
{{Authority control
Branches of biology
Veterinary medicine
Western culture