Ian Hector Frazer studied the human immune system and vaccines in Brisbane, Australia, and helped invent and patent the scientific process and technology behind what later became the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccinations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the US, or CDC, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, and can lead to genital warts, as well as cervical, head, mouth, and neck cancers. Frazer and virologist Jian Zhou conducted research in the 1990s to assess why women with HPV had higher rates of precancerous and cancerous cervical cells. Frazer’s research led the pharmaceutical company Merck to produce the Gardasil vaccination series, and GlaxoSmithKline to produce the Cervarix vaccination. Frazer’s research contributed to the development of HPV vaccinations that have been successful in reducing up to seventy percent of cervical cancer cases in women.

George Herbert Hitchings researched and developed medications that targeted specific parts of DNA replication processes to treat cancers and various illnesses in the US during the twentieth century. By studying DNA analogs, or manmade substances that resemble the structure of naturally occurring DNA components and are capable of inhibiting DNA replication, Hitchings promoted a novel approach to pharmaceutical research and drug development, known as rational drug design. Using that novel approach, Hitchings and his research team created acyclovir, one of the first medications to effectively treat herpes, a condition that can be sexually transmitted but can also be passed from mother to child, causing life-threatening illness in infants. Hitchings also contributed to the development of cancer treatments, immunosuppressant medications, anti-viral medications, and anti-malarial medications. Hitchings’s research on DNA analogs established rational drug design as a method to create new pharmaceutical drugs, some of which treat sexually transmitted illnesses.