Medical discoveries

This selection brings together events, individual lives, and awards related to medicine. Those types can be separated in the atlas: a biography or prize is not equivalent to a medical discovery.

Canonical records: 400
Events: 155
People: 236
Processes and periods: 9

Compare in the atlas Selection criteria and limits

Topics represented

Medicine (270) · Nobel laureates (233) · People (233) · Physiology or Medicine (116) · Nobel Prizes (116) · Science (43) · Epidemics & public health (7) · Personas científicas (6) · Roman Empire (3) · Vacunación (3) · VIH/sida (3) · Antirretrovirales (2)

View distribution by region and period

Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
Region	3000–1 BCE	1–1499	1500–1799	1800–1899	1900–1999	Since 2000
Africa	0	3	0	2	3	0
Americas	0	0	0	26	115	2
Asia	0	4	0	2	12	0
Europe	1	3	4	58	170	28
Oceania	0	0	0	2	6	0
Global / no specific region	1	1	0	2	13	1

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

2017
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017
The 2017 award linked this prize to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2018
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2018
The 2018 award linked this prize to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2019
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019
The 2019 award linked this prize to William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2020
mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
The first authorizations of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines demonstrate their large-scale application.
2020
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020
The 2020 award linked this prize to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2021
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021
The 2021 award linked this prize to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2022
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022
The 2022 award linked this prize to Svante Pääbo. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2023
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023
The 2023 award linked this prize to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2024
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024
The 2024 award linked this prize to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.
2025
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025
The 2025 award linked this prize to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.