Can you imagine a world without medicines?
Today we have painkillers for headaches, medicines to treat heart attacks, and antibiotics to fight infection.
But it wasn’t always like this. Every single medicine that exists today is down to scientific explorers who wanted to make a difference in the world.
These explorers are called pharmacologists. If you love science, you could be one of them!
What are medicines?
Medicines are tablets, capsules or liquids that can make people feel better. Within these medicines, there is something called the active ingredient. This is the molecule which acts on your body to make you feel better! They can be molecules extracted from plants or they can be made in a laboratory.
Many medicines work by acting on cells in the body. In this way, they can stop pain or lower blood pressure. Other medicines work by killing bacteria or viruses to stop infections.
Over history, medicines have been discovered by scientists trying to cure disease, but some of them happened by chance!
For example: penicillin
You may have heard about the famous scientist Alexander Fleming, or his most famous discovery, an antibiotic called penicillin.
Without the discovery of penicillin, most of the surgical operations we take for granted today could not take place. Successful treatment of diseases like cancer would not be possible.
It all began in 1928 when Alexander Fleming, a scientist at St Mary’s Hospital in London, made an important observation. While growing bacteria in the lab in petri dishes, he noticed that one of his petri dishes had mould on it. But in the area surrounding the mould, the bacteria had been killed.
Fascinated by this, Fleming grew the mould in his lab. He found that the liquid it grew in was deadly poisonous to many types of bacteria.
The mould turned out to be a species called Penicillium and Fleming named the drug penicillin after it.
Penicillin meant that doctors could now treat many infections that were previously incurable. Today it remains one of the most important medicines worldwide.
Discoveries like these happen because scientists conduct experiments. Every experiment gives an answer, and often leads to many more questions. It’s like being an explorer, charting unknown territory.
Scientists who study medicines are called pharmacologists. They work in the field of pharmacology. If you love science at school, you could be a pharmacologist and make the medicines of the future!
Have you heard of pharmacology?
Pharmacologists are scientists who are fascinated by medicines. We work in the area of science called pharmacology and we study how medicines work on the body. This is different to a pharmacist, who prepares, gives out and advises people about medicines that are already available.
Pharmacologists make a difference to the lives of people every day. You can find pharmacology everywhere: when you visit the dentist and have an injection to numb your mouth, or when you take medicine for a headache. Pharmacology is responsible for creating hayfever tablets, antibiotics and even cups of tea and coffee!
Without pharmacologists, we wouldn’t be able to:
- Discover new medicines to help fight diseases
- Improve their effectiveness and reduce unwanted side effects
- Understand why some medicines work better for some people than others
- Understand why some drugs cause addiction
- If you are a budding scientific explorer who wants to make a difference in the world, a career in pharmacology could be for you.
What difference does pharmacology make?
Pharmacologists help millions of people across the world. The more we learn about health and disease, the more pharmacologists need to find new, better and safer treatments.
Calpol is a medicine you might have heard of. You might even have taken it to feel better. Calpol is an anti-inflammatory drug, which means it helps to calm down the body’s immune system after an injury or infection. Like most medicines, anti-inflammatory drugs were first made for adults to take. It is then up to pharmacologists to make some versions (called formulations) of the medicine so that children can take them too.
Have you heard of drugs called beta-blockers? They are one of the most important heart medicines of all time. They were developed by a famous pharmacologist called Sir James Black who was fascinated by an important hormone in the body called adrenaline. His research into that hormone and its effects on the heart gave him the idea to develop beta-blockers.
Today, millions of people across the world take beta-blockers to help their heart keep ticking over normally.
What is it like being a pharmacologist?
All different types of people are pharmacologists. And they were once aspiring scientists just like you.
There are lots of different jobs in pharmacology that you can do. You can discover new medicines, work to improve our understanding of how they work, help ensure that medicines are safe, or advise on how medicines are used in hospitals.
Be a scientific explorer
If you want to become a scientific explorer, you will need to study maths and sciences at school. After that, when you are 16, you can decide whether to continue studying or get a job.
If you want to be a scientist, you can:
- Continue studying science at school or college, and study for A-levels, Highers or Advanced Highers , or the equivalent based on where you live.
- Start an apprenticeship
- Get a job or be self-employed
Your choices at school
Find out what subject options at school can help you become a pharmacologist here.
Find out more about careers in science
- View our engageent resources to download our:
- 'Your Path To Becoming a Scientific Explorer' leaflet
- ‘Explore the colourful world of pharmacology’ colouring book
- Explore the CREST Star and Superstar awards for hands on challenges to help you explore the scientific world around you.
