2020 Rings in a Decade of Incredible Medical Miracles

Scientists, health care providers and patients have witnessed an incredible surge of medical breakthroughs, life-saving treatments and stunning cures over the past decade thanks to new therapies and treatments being discovered by California’s life sciences industry. Here are some of the past decade’s biggest medical breakthroughs:

• The discovery of cell therapies which introduce new cells into a patient’s body to grow, replace or repair damaged tissue have led to treatments that can put patients with deadly blood cancers into remission.
• Gene therapies which introduce, remove, or change genetic material—specifically DNA or RNA—to treat a specific disease have produced remarkable treatments for rare genetic diseases that cause blindness, paralysis and death.
• RNA interference medicines which use the body’s messaging system to turn a patient’s cells into a drug factory or interrupt a harmful process have helped patient’s with rare genetic diseases.
• Vaccines and immunizations were developed for certain types of cancer and the deadly Ebola virus.
• Anti-viral therapies have provided a cure for Hepatitis C.
• Cancer immunotherapy like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‑cell immunotherapy has helped patients by enlisting their T cells to kill their tumors.

The coming decade will build on these amazing genetic-based discoveries to produce the first blood test that screens for cancer at the earliest stages, new therapies for sickle cell disease, thyroid eye disease and other rare disorders, a cure for HIV/AIDS, and novel approaches to ending multi-drug resistance. The explosion of gene-editing technology, such as CRISPR, that allows scientists to slice and dice biological building blocks, could potentially be used to combat everything from inherited blood disorders to a number of currently deadly cancers.

World Economic Forum: 6 Expert Essays on the Future of Biotech

CBF was proud to collaborate with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council on Biotechnology to develop a reader-friendly graphic that overviews key biotechnology and data milestones over nearly the past two centuries. This graphic, along with the WEF essays, are a must read for legislators and staff because they give a deeper understanding of what biotechnology is, how it can fundamentally change the way we approach human health and that the use of big data combined with lifestyle and environmental analysis can profoundly transform the future of healthcare. For more information visit the WEF website.

Stay informed on the latest news and trends on the economic and health benefits of this important industry by visiting the new CABiotech.org

For more information about California’s biotechnology and life science industry, contact California Biotechnology Foundation Executive Director Patty Cooper at (916)764-2434 or [email protected].