How has evolution helped advancements in medicine?

Question

Evolution cannot help us predict what new vaccines to manufacture because microbes evolve unpredictably. So what other areas in medicine do think evolution has helped advancements in medicine?

Answer 1

That's complete bullshit.  If you think that microbes evolve unpredictably, then you've never taken a single decent course in evolution.  Every year flu viruses are tracked, predictions are made based on their evolution, and vaccines are produced based on those predictions.  Last I checked, they haven't been wrong in a while.  In addition we have many groups tracking possible pandemic type of influenza mutations such as the H5N1 strain that was recently a major news story (avian bird flu - and don't think that bird flu isn't a problem for people, most strains of influenza originate in aquatic birds, especially the pandemic strains that can kill millions).  Genetic engineers use evolutionary principles to make new antibiotics, to design new drugs, and much more.  Diagnostics uses evolution in identifying new pathogens and characterizing them quickly based on phylogeny.  Evolution permeates through every discipline of biology, and is even used in physical sciences.

Answer 2

Notable areas include antibiotic development. There's a protocol that involves placing certain microbes in competition with each other to reap the molecular products.

And actually it is useful for creating vaccines. Different portions of a pathogen's genome evolve at different rates - and there are some portions that are highly conserved - they do not change rapidly. These are generally good targets for either drugs, or producing vaccines. Most of the next generation of HIV drugs are focused on a specific protein in the virus that changes almost not at all, despite the rest of the virus changing very rapidly.

It's late. I've got more details somewhere. Email me if you want me to find them.