The Korea Herald

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Individual patients area of concern for medical sector: Noble laureate

By KH디지털2

Published : Oct. 19, 2015 - 15:40

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An Israeli Nobel prize laureate said Monday the medical industry should focus on individual patients over a disease itself, which will bring seismic changes to the global pharmaceutical landscape.

Aaron Ciechanover, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 for his contributions in studying how the human body destructs proteins using ubiquitin, said the medical industry now must focus on developing customized solutions based on patients' DNA information.

Ciechanover said in the near future, a hospital will automatically be able find the DNA information of patients upon arrival, allowing doctors to provide customized treatments, adding that the question now lies in who takes control of such data.

He added that along with the development of the customized medical industry, patients no longer have to consume only one type of medicine, a stark comparison to the traditional system, in which the development of only one medical product led to a huge success.

Ciechanover said South Korea must adopt a more open education system if it wishes to foster its science realm, stressing that the reason the country does not have a Nobel winner is not an infrastructure matter, but a cultural one.

"In Korea, parents are teaching their children to be very successful. If you get 'A' all the time in school, it means you go straight forward. And if there is something new (at the end), you always fail," Ciechanover said.

Ciechanover added South Korean students also must not fear open discussion with teachers, much like Israel.

"You learn from failure if you can correct it. It is not a shame to fail. In order to succeed, you must fail," he said, adding that South Korean parents must keep this in mind when teaching their children. (Yonhap)