Microsoft word - medical-farmatic-bionics-2013-szuromi

AN INTRODUCTORY OVERVIEW ON THE RESEARCH FROM MEDICINE TO Venerable Professors, PhD Scholars, Dear Colleagues, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the First European PhD Conference, entitled From Medicine to Bionics, which covers the fields of medicine, molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, nano-scale opto-electromagnetics, electronics and computing, and neuroscience. When the medieval universities were born and the instructional system transformed in the 11th century, a few great expert professors formed their own study groups around themselves. Each of the established and approved universities had her own special atmosphere or “school” which was influenced by the instructed sciences, the professors and students. The outline of methodical system of the various disciplines was streamlined for the 13th century, and this made it possible to establish the lasting and unified scholastic basis of the sciences1. The instruction of natural sciences was present at the medieval universities from their beginning,2 which is represented well by the University of Salerno, which has a foundation diploma from 11733 but from several records and historical sources we know that the teaching was already settled for the 11th century. It is obvious that the principles and methods of European-type university instructional and research system have gradually differentiated since the 11th – 12th century which caused the fundamental classification of sciences and their particular fields.4 There was a revolutionary improvement in the Western medical instruction through the introduction of the Arabic medicine, its method and results. One of the best examples for this the adaptation in systematized teaching program at the University of Paris in 1271. Nevertheless, we would like to emphasize the importance of CONSTANTINE THE AFRICA (†1087 [?]) who was merchant and in the second part of the 11th century translated many Arabic works to Latin and studied medicine in North Africa in order to supply the curriculum of instruction in Salerno.5 His name had connected to the first transplantation of Arabic medicine into the Western medical teaching system and tradition.6 All of his works have made a strong and long-time influence on the university medical concept and research which * This paper was presented on June 14th 2013, at the From Medicine to Bionics 1st European Ph.D. Conference (Budapest 2013), supported by TÁMOP-4.2.2/B-10/1-2010-0013 and TÁMOP-4.2.1/B-11/2/KMR-2011-0002 projects. ** Full time Professor of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPCU), President of PPCU. 1 SZUROMI, SZ.A., La fondazione delle università nel medioevo e le particolarità dell’insegnamento universitario, in Rivista internazionale di diritto comune 24 (2013) [under press]. 2 JAQUART, D., The Introduction of Arabic Medicina into West. The Question of Etiology, in JAQUART, D., La science médicale occidentale entre deux renaiisance (XIIes-XVe s.) [Variorum Collected Studies Series CS 567], Aldershot 1997. III/186-195. 3 VITOLO, G., Dalle scoule salernitane di medicina alla Scoula medica salernitana, in Studi di storia meridionale in memoriam di P. Laveglia, Salerno 1994. 13-30. 4 SZUROMI, SZ.A., A középkori egyetemek létrejöttének és az egyetemi oktatás megszületésének sajátosságai, in KÖRMENDY K., Studentes extra regnum. Egyetemjárás és könyvhasználat az Esztergomi Székeskáptalanban 1183-1543 (Bibliotheca Instituti Postgradualis Iuris Canonici Universitatis Catholicae de Petro Pázmány nominatae III/9), Budapest 2007. 41-53, especially 50-51. NICOUD, M., Les Régimes de santé au Moyen Âge, I: Naissance et diffusion d’un écriture médicale (XIIIe-XVe siècle), Rome 2007. 61-86. 5 SCHIPPERGES, H., Die übersetzer der arabischer Medizin in chronologischer Sicht, in Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 38 (1954) 53-93. 6 JAQUART, D., The Introduction of Arabic Medicina into West, 188-189. testified well by the edition of his collected writings in 1536.7 Based on this example we can see how important was – even during the Middle Ages – the constructive mind which recognized the challenge and importance of new technique and concept in the healing. These unique researchers and theoreticians have developed the medical sciences and gave opportunity for the next generations – scholars of the further centuries – to continue their works on higher level.8 The names of Louis PASTEUR (†1895) the great French chemist and bacteriologist, who made a profound discovery regarding living microorganisms and immunization9; Crawford W. LONG, Gardner Quincy COLTON, Horace WELLS, and Charles JACKSON who used firstly the general anesthesia in the first part of the 19th century10; Charles BROWN-SÉQUARD, the pioneer of the endocrine therapy in 1889; Peyton ROUS and his fundamental research on infectious diseases in 191011; or Alexander FLEMING and his enduring work which concluded into the discovery of the penicillin are imperishable mile stones within the process of medical history.12 However, these excellent personalities are emblematic figures for the current generation when they like to know more about science, medicine, molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, etc. in order to find answers for still opened questions. This is that motivation why in every single epoch of science history we can find some vigorous talented young scholars who have that ability to ask questions, and like to give more adequate and precise answer than has been elaborated before. The above indicated progressive new discoveries and initiatives are well represented by the detailed research on DNA and RNA during the last two decades.13 Nowadays this analysis is focusing particularly on the different forms of RNA, including the post-transcriptional regulator class of the microRNA, identified in 1993; but also on the peculiarities of the enzymes which play important role in the process of transcription. From 1993 a very rapid development has occurred concerning the microRNAs, identified them basically as short nucleotide sequences of the mRNA. However, the recent analyses of microRNAs testified also some possibilities of the attaching to the DNA of these short nucleotide sequences. Many researchers analyzed possible correlations between deregulated microRNAs and cancers, e.g., breast cancer, malignant brain tumors, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, etc.14 There are several significant research centers and profound research programs of this field, e.g., Flinders University, Australia;15 The Netherlands Cancer Institute, 7 Constantini Africani opera, Basel 1536. 8 NICOUD, M., Les Régimes de Santé au Moyen Âge, I: Naissance et diffusion d’un écriture médicale (XIIIe – XIVe siècle), Rome 2007, particularly 61-86. 9 Cf. LATOUR, B., Les microbes: guerre et paix suivi de irréductions, Paris 1984. DEBRÉ, P. – FORSTER, E., Louis Pasteur, Baltimore, Maryland 1998. 10 Cf. ERVING, H.W., The Discoverer of Anaestesia: Dr. Horace Wells of Hartford, in Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 5/5 (1933) 421-433. 11 DULBECCO, R., Francis Peyton Rous, in Biographical memoirs. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 48 (1976) 275–306. 12 BROWN, K., Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution, Stroud 2004. 13 SZUROMI, SZ.A., Saint Augustine – Charles Darwin – Gregor Mendel and the Modern Methodologies of Genetics (Jedlik Laboratories Research Report 1/2013), Budapest 2013. 5. 14 Cf. TÖMBÖ, Z. – SZABÓ, P.M. – MOLNÁR, V. – WEINER, Z. – TÖLGYESI, G. – HORÁNYI, J. – REISZ, P. – REISMANN, P. – PATÓCS, A. – LIKÓ, I. – GAILLARD, R.C. – FALUS, A. – RÁCZ, K. – IGAZ, P., Integrative molecular-bioinformatics study of human adrenocortical tumors: microRNA, tissue specigic target prediction and pathway analysis, in Endocrine-related Cancer 16 (2009) 895-906. TÖMBÖ, Z. – ÉDER, K. – KOVÁCS, Á. – SZABÓ, P.M. – KULKA, J. – LIKÓ, I. – ZALATNAI, A. – RÁCZ, G. – TÓTH, M. – PATÓCS, A. – FALUS, A. – RÁCZ, K. – IGAZ, P., MicroRNA expression profiling in benign (sporadic and hereditary) and recurring adrenal pheochromocytomas, in Mod Pathol 23 (2010) 1583-1595. 15 British Journal of Surgery 94 (2007) 23-30. Amsterdam;16 Semmelweis University, Hungary;17 but they also analyze microRNAs as tumor suppressor.18 If we turn our attention to the brain research, especially to its sensory overload, neurotransmitter balance and brain’s receptors we can understand that revolutionary change which has happened by the information-processing models of neuroscience.19 Nevertheless, it is also true concerning genetics and immunology, moreover it gives key position to bionics in the 21st century.20 Obviously, together with these new techniques immediately several moral questions arise: where is a limit of our artificial interventions, which can change sometimes even the personality of the patient? This is that question which was articulated many times by Thomas FREUND, one of the most significant contemporary researchers of nervous system, particularly functioning of the brain.21 This problem is already raises the ethical or moral issue and the serious responsibility of the researchers too. The new nanotechnologies in synergy with bio- and information technologies – like Thomas ROSKA emphasizes – offers more and more possibilities for simplifying those complicated processes, analysis medical or pharmacological works, which took a long time before.22 One of the most significant exampless for these new techniques is the so called “Lab-on-a-chip” technology based on a strong and minutely elaborated chemical engineering background. The cellular architecture computing system gives revolutionary new facilities into the hands of those scholars who are working at the crossroads of electronics and information technology and biotechnology, moreover in the field of multidisciplinary bionic engineering.23 We must understand – which was clearly demonstrated above – that for the 20th and 21st century the complex scientific analysis should use together with results and methods of various other sciences. This recognition underlines the importance of interdisciplinarity or multidisciplinarity.24 Those great classical authors and their works which defined the passages of natural sciences from the dawn of the European medieval university model, and have fixed the most important stresses in the fields of medicine, molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, etc. are exemplary predecessors who are representing the flourishing past. The current university instruction in these fields expresses the high qualified present wherein the 16 Biochemica et Biophysica Acta 1775 (2007) 274-282. 17 Orvosi Hetilap [Medical Weekly Paper] 153/42 (2007) 1135-1141. 18 Cf. ZSIPPAI, A. – SZABÓ, D.R. – SZABÓ, P.M. – TÖMBÖL, Z. – BENDES, M.R. – NAGY, Z. – RÁCZ, K. – IGAZ, P., mRNA and micro RNA expression patterns in drenocortical cancer, in American Journal of Cancer Research 1 (2011) 618-628. 19 GULYÁS, B., Brain and inner solence: A neurobiologist’s view, in in VIZI, E.S. – KUCSERA, T.G. (ed.), Europe in a World in Transformation (Conference at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 14th-16th December 2006), Budapest 2008. 73-91, especially 80-83. 20 ROSKA, T., The Drama of Understanding and Maintaining Hope in an Age of Fragmented and Multidisciplinary Scientific Research, in VIZI, E.S. – KUCSERA, T.G. (ed.), Europe in a World in Transformation, 93-100, especially 93. 21 Cf. GULYÁS, A.I. – SZABÓ, G.G. – ULBERT, I. – HOLDERITH, N. – MONYER, H. – ERDÉLYI, F. – SZABÓ, G. – FREUND, T.F. – HAJOS, N., Parvalbumin-containing fast-spiking basket cells generate the field potential oscillations induced by cholinergic receptor activation in the hippocampus, in Journal of Neuroscience 30/45 (2010) 15134-15145. HAJÓS, N. – HOLDERITH, N. – NÉMETH, B. – PAPP, O.I. – SZABÓ, G.G. – ZEMANKOVICS, R. – FREUND, T.F. – HALLER, J.,The Effects of an Echinacea Preparation on Synaptic Transmission and the Firing Properties of CA1 Pyramidal Cells in the Hippocampus, in Phytotherapy Research 26/3 (2012) 354-362. 22 ROSKA, T., The Drama of Understanding and Maintaining Hope in an Age of Fragmented and Multidisciplinary Scientific Research, in VIZI, E.S. – KUCSERA, T.G. (ed.), Europe in a World in Transformation, 94-95. 23 Abouet these fields in detailed the articles of ROSKA, T. – GILLI, M. – ZARÁNDY, Á. (edd.), Proceedings of the 2010 12th International Workshop on Cellular Nanoscale Networks and their Apllications (CNNA) – Towards Megaprocessor Computing (February 3-5 2010, Berkeley, California), IEEE 2010. 24 SZUROMI, SZ.A., Saint Augustine – Charles Darwin – Gregor Mendel and the Modern Methodologies of Genetics, 6. new results of the current researches can be directly and immediately inserted into the doctorate formation. That particular scholarly works which you – PhD scholars – have begun and continuously improving in order to reach similar revolutionary discoveries which have happened in the 19th – 20th centuries, shows and signs the future of these sciences and that human endeavor which never expire and always are in correlation to the ethical values and responsibilities of mankind.

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