Defining the Life Sciences
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Life Sciences 101 explains how research in the life sciences leads to new companies, more jobs, and healthier Hoosiers. Transcript >>
What are the life sciences? In the simplest terms, life science is the study of life. Scientists in many fields are learning more than ever before about how the brain works, how proteins, genes, DNA, and cells combine to give rise to life, and how we can use this knowledge to create new medications and medical technologies, cure disease, improve agriculture, and bolster the economy through the creation of new businesses and jobs.
Life science is happening across Indiana. Doctors, nurses, biologists, chemists, farmers, business people, and many others are involved in the life sciences. They are working together on a host of vital projects such as improving MRI scanning, advancing crop technologies, finding new ways to treat cancer, and helping children stay fit, to name only a few.
Research in these and other areas is leading to breakthroughs that make a real difference in people's lives. The sequencing of the human genome has lead to advances in gene therapy with the potential to cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other diseases that affect our lives. Agricultural researchers are discovering ways to grow more plentiful and nutritious crops to help feed people around the world. And all of these discoveries, inventions, and new technologies are giving rise to new businesses and jobs that will strengthen our state's economy.
Many Sciences, Working Together
The following fields represent some of the major players in life sciences. They often overlap, and life sciences researchers from various fields often collaborate, sharing their ideas, knowledge, technology, and funding in order to achieve the best results.
Biochemistry
Biochemistry is a merger of biology and chemistry. Biochemists study the chemistry of proteins, molecules, and cells and how the chemicals they use give rise to and sustain life. Biochemists have been central in discovering things like what cholesterol is, what it does, and why it's both good and bad for our bodies.
Genetics
Genetics is the study of genes and the chromosomes that house them. Even since Indiana University researcher James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, geneticists have been investigating how genes work and how we can learn to manipulate and repair them. The full sequencing of the human genome in 2003 was a major leap forward, bringing us closer to the day when medical care will be much more targeted and individualized, and when gene therapies may be able to cure many deadly diseases.
Medical Sciences
The medical sciences cover a wide range of human health fields — everything from molecular biology to MRI and other scanning technologies that allow doctors to look inside the body without cutting it open. Some of the most urgent and progressive areas of medical science include cancer research, diabetes, proteomics (the study of proteins), stem cell research, and obesity, to name a few.
Neuroscience
Although neuroscience — the study of the brain — technically falls under the umbrella of medical science, it's an area of special emphasis at IU. Scientists have learned a great deal about the brain over the past 25 years, thanks to advances in scanning, imaging technology, and nanotechnology.
Yet neuroscience has only scratched the surface of the brain's complexity and how its many hundreds of parts and countless connections work together to give rise to consciousness. Unlocking the brain's mysteries and finding better ways to prevent, treat, and cure neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are among the life sciences' most urgent goals.
Turning Breakthroughs into Business
Much life sciences research begins in university labs, but it doesn't stay there. More and more, the research, discoveries, and inventions that happen on campus are put to use to create technologies, medicines, treatments, products, new businesses and jobs, and a host of other innovations that make a real difference in people's lives. It all begins with technology transfer — the process by which an idea hatched or breakthrough made in a lab comes to benefit the wider public. Academics and industry may seem to inhabit two entirely different worlds, and in many ways they do. But many industries, including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, rely heavily on ideas generated by university researchers. The life sciences offer boundless opportunities for ideas to turn into profitable, job-creating businesses.
