A LOOK TOWARD THE FUTURE 
7 e are deeply 
indebted to the 
scientists of the 
past who first 
mm revealed the mar- 
vels of the cell. As productive 
as the past has been, however, 
the future promises to be still 
more exciting as researchers 
gain an even greater under- 
standing of cell activities and 
apply that understanding to 
questions of health and disease. 
In the three centuries since 
Robert Hooke turned his micro- 
scope on hits of dried cork, 
much has been learned about 
the world inside the cell. 
Directed by the genes and influ- 
enced by the environment, cells 
perform an astonishing array of 
tasks and take on a variety of 
forms suited to their work. Cell 
biologists now know a great deal 
about how the cell’s living 
machinery works to make 
proteins. In addition, they are 
learning the molecular details of 
many of the biochemical processes 
critical to the life of the cell. 
Scientists are also making 
progress in understanding how 
molecules outside the cell influ- 
ence what goes on inside and 
how cells within an organism 
communicate with each other. 
One clinical application of this 
work will probably be better 
ways to treat chronic wounds 
and burn injuries. 
We now have a much more 
complete understanding of the 
molecular signals that cause cells 
in an embryo to differentiate into 
muscle, blood, nerve, and other 
specialized cells. Additional 
knowledge about cell differentia- 
tion will provide greater 
understanding of normal and 
defective development in humans. 
In recent years, many genes 
involved in hereditary diseases 
have been identified. The ability 
to isolate and copy these genes 
allows biologists to study what 
goes wrong in cells to cause the 
diseases. In addition, researchers 
are working to determine the 
sequence of all of the DNA — 
the genomes — of entire organ- 
isms, including humans. This 
will permit many new studies 
and should lead to important 
information on cellular processes 
and how they are coordinated. 
Scientists are working on many 
techniques to correct faulty 
genes, including ways to sneak 
new nucleotide sequences past 
the body’s defense mechanisms. 
The goal, once the sequences 
are taken up by the cell, is to 
get them integrated in such a 
way that the desired substances 
are properly made. Gene 
therapy is also beginning to be 
employed in new and creative 
experiments that may someday 
lead to new ways of treating 
many different disorders. In 
the future, it may be possible 
to use it to genetically engineer 
living cells to make their own 
“medicines” in response to 
carefully controlled chemical 
signals from outside the cell. 
New techniques to rapidly 
screen chemical compounds are 
now greatly expanding the pool 
from which possible therapeutic 
substances can be drawn. The 
study of molecular structures 
by x-ray crystallography has 
yielded detailed understanding 
of many molecules critical to 
health, and may eventually yield 
therapeutic molecules specifi- 
cally tailored to “fit” the 
structures and thus alter their 
chemical activity. In addition, 
the science of synthetic chem- 
istry has yielded many improved 
ways to design new therapeutic 
substances. The success that all 
these promising achievements 
will have in the fight against 
disease depends on continued 
progress in understanding 
cellular biology. 
These advances are only a 
beginning, because the cell still 
holds many mysteries. It some- 
times takes years after a new 
discovery is made for the 
potential applications to 
become clear. Thus, just as no 
one can predict what basic 
researchers will discover in the 
future, neither can the even- 
tual clinical applications of 
today’s results be known. 
Scientists now have an unprece- 
dented array of tools and body 
of knowledge with which to work. 
A wealth of exciting avenues 
for scientific exploration are 
opening. If the momentum can 
be sustained, the next 50 years 
may well see victories over 
many human diseases. 
51 
