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From alchemy to personalised medicine: the journey of laboratory medicine
  1. Roberto Verna
  1. Experimental Medicine - Systems Biology Group, University of Rome La Sapienza Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Roma, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Professor Roberto Verna, Experimental Medicine - Systems Biology Group, University of Rome La Sapienza Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Medical Sport Center, via Chiana 97 Roma 00198, Italy; roberto.verna{at}fondazione.uniroma1.it

Abstract

This review summarises the long period in which man has approached nature to understand its powers, and has tried to control it through physical and chemical, and also magical, practices. From the attempt to manage nature to the development of primordial drugs and medical practices and later to achieve modern biomedical science, laboratory practices always played a pivotal role. Over the years and centuries, the laboratory has acquired more and more importance in the improvement of health.

In addition to the well-known importance of laboratory medicine in the early diagnosis and appropriateness, the discoveries of the last 50 years have also given the Laboratory a decisive role in regenerative and personalised medicine.

This paper examines the evolution of the laboratory and is not meant to be a treatise on the history of medicine. The goal is to highlight the moments of the transition from magic and alchemy to laboratory science.

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Roberto Verna is President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and President of the Academy for Health and Clinical Research.

  • BIOCHEMISTRY
  • CELL BIOLOGY
  • Chemistry, Clinical
  • CHEMISTRY
  • MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

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Footnotes

  • Handling editor Tahir S Pillay.

  • Collaborators There is only one author.

  • Contributors During time, Alchemy has been transformed into clinical pathology and laboratory medicine science.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Disclaimer No conflict of interest

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.