SIBS: Students Perspective

3D printing is also now increasing in use in other specialities for specific tools but also in the field Urology for planning robotic surgical. It is a hope that one day that human tissue could be printed in a similar manner to the artificial models. More recently, researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute have cultured functional cardiac tissue onto a spinach leaf scaffold and hopefully their success can be extrapolated on a larger scale.
Research into organ transplantation is also progressing with Yamanaka Induced Pluripotency Stem Cells opening a new window in stem cell research which suggests a future possibility of autologous organ transplants. In addition, xenografts have always looked to be an interesting approach, however progress in that field has stagnated in recent years.
All of the innovations discussed, and many more, hold great promise. However I believe it would be naïve to think that such developments could entirely replace conventional allogeneic transplants within the next 10-20 years. This is due to the meticulous time consuming nature of trials, in addition to the highly expensive cost of new technology - rendering it unaffordable for wide scale for many successive years (evidenced by Human Genome Sequencing). Despite this, this does not mean we cannot be optimistic.

I see the future of diagnostics of these diseases in ELISA of olfactory epithelium samples to identify some forms of beta-amyloid and neuroapoptotic factors. In the long term, this can be one of the most cheap and safe methods of detecting neurodegenerative diseases in the early stages.

Screening of the population also have useful effect. Because knowledge of population health status may detect cancer in the early stages.

For example, my first actions will concern not only qualitative informing the population about risk factors and means of reducing them,but also improving health screening which should be done every year for all people. One of the main problem: tumor causes no symptoms during early cancergenesis and the first signs appear very late , when the treatment of cancer becomes difficult and the death-rate is very high. Cancer that's diagnosed at an early stage, before it's had the chance to get too big or spread is more likely to be treated successfully. Therefore people with high risk of developing cancer should thoroughly be examined by doctors and in case of cancergenesis become immediate and effective treatment. Health care of every person will help to win the fight between disease and doctors, I am sure!

If I became the head of an international organization which aims to fight cancer, I would try to make presymtomatic diagnosis more common. In my opinion, there should be tests, that indicate the presence of oncomarkers or oncoantigens in patients, so that doctors could spot the pathology at very early stage. All in all, I think that preventing a disease is always more effective, than treating one.

This is especially true for solid tumours that are asymptomatic in the early stages. As markers for diagnostics, I would suggest a complex approach, including the validation of both genetic and proteomic targets. Along with the study of mutations, SNP, I would also evaluate the now fashionable micro-RNA, would return to well-forgotten serological markers, proteins, start looking for a new combination, plus measure the levels of antibodies to glycans. This approach, using different techniques, sequencing, mass spectrometry, arrays for the detection of different classes of compounds, will most fully reflect the concept of a personalised medicine, especially relevant for early diagnosis.