Decade of Advances in Medicine — 1997

New body imaging technology—3-dimensional magnetic resonance angiography—gives doctors a better view of blood flow in the heart. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports severe obesity epidemic throughout much of the world, affecting adults and children alike. Scientists find first anticancer monoclonal antibody to fight non-Hodgkins lymphoma. British embryologist Ian Wilmut successfully clones the first mammal—a sheep named Dolly. Patients suffering from a heart condition called angina are treated with gene therapy, that introduces a helpful gene to produce key enzymes their bodies couldn’t make on their own. While HIV continues to rise in some other nations (especially in Africa), the U.S. reports first significant decline in AIDS deaths (23%).

Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to Stanley B. Prusiner (USA) for the discovery of the prion theory of disease—"a new biological principle of infection." Click here to read the full story. For more information about other Nobel Prize winners, visit www.nobel.se.

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