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Cells
Robert Hooke coined the term "cells" and Anton Van Leeuwenkoek observed the first microorganisms because of the invention of the microscope. -
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Biotechnology Timeline
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Pea Plants
Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk working with pea plants, discovered the simple laws of inheritance of traits that allowed one to predict the outcome of crosses with certain traits. -
Germ Theory
Louis Pasteur described the scientific basis for fermentation, wine making, and the brewing of beer, established the science of microbiology, and proposed the Germ Theory, claiming that microorganisms were responsible for infectious. -
Inheritable Material
Johann Miescher found nucleic acid in white blood cells from pus in bandages. This later led scientists to believe that DNA might be the inheritable material of an organism. -
Chromosomes
Studying fruit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were on chormosomes. -
Bacteria
Fred Griffith, using mice, proved that genetic material could be moved from one strain of bacteria to another. -
Biotechnology Drugs
Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to develop biotechnology drugs today. -
DNA Bases
Chargaff showed that in DNA the number of units of adenine equaled those of thymine and the number of units of cytosine equaled those of guanine. -
"One Gene Produces One Enzyme"
Beadle and Tatum proposed the "One fen produces one enzyme" hypothesis. 1944 Avery, McCarty, and MeLeod established that indeed DNA was the heredity material that was transferred. -
Viruses
Using their famous "blender experiment," Hershey and Chase proved viruses replicated using DNA and confirmed the role of DNA as the hereditary material. -
Double Helix
Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins established through X-ray crystallography that DNA was indeed a double helix. -
Watson and Crick
Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA. -
Plasmid DNA
Hayes discovered plasmid DNA, circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria. -
Messenger DNA
Walter Gilbert discovered the mechanism of gene expression through his study of messenger DNA. -
Bacterial Restriction Enzymes
Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA. -
Codons
Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 codons (the triplet code of 3 bases in DNA) that code for the 20 amino acids making up proteins. -
Purified Plasmids
DNA plasmids were isolated and purified by Vinograd. -
Bacteria Transformation
Madel and Higa were responsible for the first transformation of the bacterium Escherichia coli. -
Cloning
Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen. -
Genentech
Genentech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded. -
Recombinant DNA
140 scientists met to draw up guidelines for work with recombinant DNA in microorganisms. Paul Berg was a key organizer. -
Sequencing DNA
Sanger and Gilbert found a way to sequence DNA. Given an unknown piece of DNA, they were able to read the corect of bases of adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. -
Synthetic Insulin Gene
Boyer inserted a synthetic insulin gene into E. coli. -
RFLP
Botstein found that one could be identified by the pattern made of one's DNA through a digest by different ensymes. This DNA fingerprint was called a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). -
Vitro Fertilization
Louise Joy Brown was born, the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilization, in which sperm and egg are joined in a petri dish. the fertilization egg is later implanted in a womb. -
Genetically Altered Life Forms Patented
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that genetically altered life forms can be patented. This resulted in a huge startup of biotech companies. -
First Transgenic Animals
Ohio University scientists made the first transgenic animals. -
Eli LIlly Company
Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria. -
Transformed Plants
Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch transformed plants with Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. -
PCR
Kary Mullis invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory. -
Criminal Cases
Jeffries applied RFLP in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases. -
Fluorescence Sequencer
An automated fluorescence sequencer was invented, speeding up te labor-intense process. -
Gene Gun
Genes were moved into an organism through the use of a gene gun. -
Safety Guidelines
NIH revised safety guidelines for recombinant DNA to include plants grown in greenhouses and animals raised in barns. -
RNA Interference
Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discovered RNA interference, silencing of genes, in the worm C. elegans. -
MAb Technology
Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne used monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology. -
YACs
Maynard Olson and colleagues at Washington University invented "yeast artificial chromosomes," or YACs, which are expression vectors for large proteins. -
Cloned Sheep
Ian Wilmut cloned Dolly the sheep from an adult cell of a ewe at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. -
DNA Microarray
DNA microarray (DNA chip) technology, looking at the expression of all the genes of an organism at one time on a microscope slide or silicon chip, was developed. -
Dabiri and Garner
Dabiri and Garner invented an automated DNA sequencer that had a capability of sequencing 76,800 base pairs per hour, 5 to 30 times faster than existing sequencers. Technology like this greatly sped up the Human Genome Project. -
Riboswitch
Ron Breaker coined the term "riboswitch" for part of an mRNA molecule that can regulate its own activity and therefore gene expression. -
Human Genome Project
Announcement was made of the completion of the Human Genome Project (initiated in 1990) by Francis Collins and Craig Venter. The project provided the ability to find genes and gave rise to the sequencing of other genomes.
