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 atlasSelection 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.
RegionBefore 3000 BCE3000–1 BCE1–14991500–17991800–18991900–1999Since 2000
Africa0030230
Americas0000261152
Asia00402120
Europe01345817028
Oceania0000260
Global / no specific region01102131

Records and sources

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

  1. 1941–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Jules A. Hoffmann

    Jules A. Hoffmann (1941–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2011). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  2. c. 1942–c. 1944

    Industrial penicillin production

    Collaboration among laboratories, government, and U.S. industry scales penicillin fermentation; by 1944 supply met military needs. This is a manufacturing breakthrough distinct from the 1928 discovery.

  3. 1942–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Bert Sakmann

    Bert Sakmann (1942–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1991). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  4. 1942–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

    Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1942–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1995). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  5. 1942–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Stanley B. Prusiner

    Stanley B. Prusiner (1942–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1997). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  6. 1942–2018

    John E. Sulston

    John E. Sulston (1942–2018) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2002). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  7. 1942–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Tasuku Honjo

    Tasuku Honjo (1942–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2018). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  8. 1943

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1943

    The 1943 award linked this prize to Henrik Dam and Edward A. Doisy. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  9. 1943–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Richard J. Roberts

    Richard J. Roberts (1943–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1993). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  10. 1943–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Tim Hunt

    Tim Hunt (1943–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2001). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  11. 1943–2011

    Ralph M. Steinman

    Ralph M. Steinman (1943–2011) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2011). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  12. 1944

    DNA as hereditary material

    Avery, MacLeod and McCarty provide evidence that DNA carries hereditary information.

  13. 1944

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1944

    The 1944 award linked this prize to Joseph Erlanger and Herbert S. Gasser. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  14. 1944–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Erwin Neher

    Erwin Neher (1944–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1991). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  15. 1944–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Phillip A. Sharp

    Phillip A. Sharp (1944–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1993). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  16. 1944–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Rolf M. Zinkernagel

    Rolf M. Zinkernagel (1944–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1996). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  17. 1944–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Michael Rosbash

    Michael Rosbash (1944–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2017). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  18. 1945

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945

    The 1945 award linked this prize to Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst B. Chain and Sir Howard Florey. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  19. 1945–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Yoshinori Ohsumi

    Yoshinori Ohsumi (1945–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2016). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  20. 1945–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Jeffrey C. Hall

    Jeffrey C. Hall (1945–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2017). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  21. 1946

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1946

    The 1946 award linked this prize to Hermann J. Muller. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  22. 1946–1995

    Georges J.F. Köhler

    Georges J.F. Köhler (1946–1995) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1984). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  23. 1946–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Richard Axel

    Richard Axel (1946–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2004). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  24. 1947

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947

    The 1947 award linked this prize to Carl Cori, Gerty Cori and Bernardo Houssay. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  25. 1947–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Eric F. Wieschaus

    Eric F. Wieschaus (1947–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1995). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  26. 1947–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    H. Robert Horvitz

    H. Robert Horvitz (1947–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2002). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  27. 1947–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Linda B. Buck

    Linda B. Buck (1947–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2004). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  28. 1947–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

    Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (1947–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2008). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  29. 1948

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948

    The 1948 award linked this prize to Paul Müller. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  30. 1948–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Elizabeth H. Blackburn

    Elizabeth H. Blackburn (1948–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2009). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.