“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”
– Albert Szent-Györgyi, Nobel Prize-winning physiologist
I have always been fascinated by history, and especially by the origin stories of many items we consider commonplace today.
Take Play-Doh, for example. It was invented here in Ohio — not as a toy, but as a way to clean coal residue off wallpaper. Listerine was used as a surgical antiseptic and floor cleaner before it became a popular mouthwash. Tomatoes were feared for centuries. Even petroleum jelly was long dismissed as industrial waste, until its usefulness for skin care and wound protection was recognized.
These stories are compelling reminders that discovery is all about perspective. True discovery requires curiosity, imagination and the willingness to challenge the status quo — to look at something familiar through an entirely new lens.
That mindset is thriving at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where discovery is embedded in how we teach, care for patients and conduct research to explore new frontiers like artificial intelligence.
A remarkable example of this is the work of Xia Ning, PhD, and her team, who are using a generative AI model to revolutionize drug development. Their research shows that generative AI can accelerate the design of new compounds while also improving safety and efficacy. Work that once took years can now happen in seconds.
This innovative spirit was also evident during this year’s Appathon, where College of Medicine clinicians and researchers collaborated with engineering students to tackle real-world clinical problems using AI. One standout project, a partnership with Swati Satturwar, MD, was a prototype to automate the counting of glomeruli in donor kidneys — a vital step in determining transplant eligibility. This tool aims to speed up life-saving decisions and is now being scaled up for broader clinical application.
These efforts reflect a crucial shared priority across our college and the medical center, as outlined in Impact 2035: our pursuit of relentless innovation to improve lives. From AI-enhanced imaging in our soon-to-open, new University Hospital — where next-generation MRI machines can reduce scan times by up to 40% — to advanced data analysis tools that are transforming patient care and research, we are at the forefront of a university-wide effort to harness the power of AI.
I encourage you to read more about this groundbreaking work here.
At its core, discovery means reimagining the familiar and finding potential within the ordinary. It calls us to look beyond what we think we know and envision what else it could become. That is how breakthroughs happen, and that is how we move medicine forward.
Dean, College of Medicine
Leslie H. and Abigail S. Wexner Dean’s Chair in Medicine
Vice President for Health Sciences, Wexner Medical Center