Since 1953, with Watson and Crick discovery of DNA double helix, it begins molecular biology and genetics era.
The medicine immediately enjoys the benefits deriving from the discoveries of these new scientific areas, and in the ’70s the first “proto-oncogene” was discovered, is a gene that codify for a protein that regulatescell proliferation.
Between the 80s and the 90s, with the advent of PCR and of the “Human Genoma Project”, “tumor suppressor genes” are detected, and they, unlike proto-oncogenes, limit cell proliferation;besides,thefirst “targeted” medicines able to distinguish and hit only diseased tissuessparing healthy oneshave been developed.