Medicine and health sciences

Medicine applies scientific knowledge to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases, while health sciences encompass the broader study of factors affecting human health and well-being. The field is increasingly becoming personalized and preventive, using genetic, molecular, and behavioral information to tailor interventions to individual patients.

Key challenges include developing cures for major diseases, extending healthy human lifespan, and creating more precise and effective therapeutic interventions. Modern medicine integrates basic biological research with clinical practice, engineering, and data science to develop new approaches to maintaining and restoring human health.

The 10 medicine and Health sciences problems

* These are just preliminary ideas and do not represent final problems of the Berkeley 100 Challenge. The final problems will be determined by our Scientific Committees.

  • Universal Cancer Early Detection

  • Comprehensive Immune System Reprogramming

  • Precision Preventive Medicine Platform

  • Universal Infectious Disease Prevention Platform

  • Comprehensive Multi-Organ Tissue Engineering

  • Reversing Chronic Disease Progression

  • Human Microbiome Engineering Platform

  • Comprehensive Health Prediction and Monitoring System

  • Aging Intervention Platform

  • Universal Organ and Tissue Regeneration Platform

Medicine and health sciences problem sample

* These are just preliminary ideas and do not represent final problems of the Berkeley 100 Challenge. The final problems will be determined by our Scientific Committees.

Universal Cancer Early Detection

Problem Statement:

Develop a minimally invasive screening platform capable of detecting and localizing any cancer type at Stage I or earlier with at least 95% sensitivity and 99% specificity, using accessible biomarkers and imaging technologies.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Detection sensitivity >95% for Stage I cancers across all major cancer types

  • Specificity >99% to minimize false positives

  • Tumor localization accuracy sufficient to guide intervention

  • Minimally invasive sampling (e.g., blood, urine, breath)

  • Cost-effective implementation feasible in diverse healthcare settings

  • Clinically validated in prospective multi-center trials

  • Regulatory pathway clearly defined for clinical implementation

Feasibility Assessment: 

Very challenging, likely requiring 10-15 years. Requires integration of multiple biomarker types and analytical technologies. Progress in circulating tumor DNA analysis, multi-cancer signal identification, proteomics, and machine learning approaches for signal integration would be important precursors.

Impact on the Field: 

Would transform chronic disease management from controlling progression to actual reversal and cure. Would potentially alleviate enormous healthcare burden and improve quality of life for millions. May reveal common pathological mechanisms across seemingly distinct diseases with implications for understanding disease etiology.

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