In November 1949, with the seminal paper, "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease",  in Science magazine, Linus Pauling, Harvey Itano and their collaborators laid the groundwork for establishing the field of molecular medicine.  In 1956, Roger J. Williams wrote Biochemical Individuality, a prescient book about genetics, prevention and treatment of disease on a molecular basis, and nutrition which is now variously referred to as individualized medicine and orthomolecular medicine.  Another paper in Science by Pauling in 1968, introduced and defined this view of molecular medicine that focuses on natural and nutritional substances used for treatment and prevention.
Published research and progress was slow until the 1970s' "biological revolution" that introduced many new techniques and commercial applications.