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Discovery of DNA
While doing research on white blood cells, physician Friedrich Miescher isolated a previously unknown nuclei which was acidic and contained phosphorus, he named his discovery "nuclein" this was the first discovery of DNA. -
DNA Structure
Watson and Crick were two scientists who discovered a structure, which later became commonly known as the "double-helix" structure which is now seen as the worldwide DNA structure. -
Discovery of DNA Testing
British geneticist Alec Jeffereys developed the first technique of DNA testing using the fingerprint. This became known as the first discovery of DNA testing. -
DNA Testing is Published to the World
In 1985 Jeffereys published his finding about DNA testing in the journal Nature, this first introduced the world to DNA testing. -
Solving Crimes
The DNA fingerprint technique made it's way into the crime scene in 1986 when it was first used to solve a rape and murder case, this opened the door for more crimes to be solved using this same technique. -
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project launches in 1990 this focused on mapping a humans DNA in order to fully understand what scientists were testing. -
Green River Killer
Around this time there was a murderer referred to as the "Green River Killer" responsible for at least 22 sexual assaults and robberies, DNA was still in its breakout stage , not being fully advanced which caused these cases to go cold. -
Gary Ridgway
In 2001, DNA was finally able to identify the Green River Killer as a man who was also involved in many rapes and murder, this was a major breakthrough to a cold case and truly helped get DNA testing off the ground. -
Funding DNA
In 2002 president George W. Bush requested for Congress to help fund DNA backlog reduction programs, this would allow for DNA testing for solving crimes to become something more important and easy accessible, they were granted $70.8 million. -
Finally Complete
In 2003 the Human Genome Project was finally completed, at the time this was described as the greatest journey ever made because it allowed for identifying genes and genetic variations linked to diseases. -
Double DNA
In 2013 research was done to study the genetic makeup of identical twins, this research suggest that identical twins share the same DNA, this allowed for people around the world to become more fascinated about DNA testing. -
Further Breathroughs
In 2014 scientists continued researching to have a better understanding of DNA, feeling that they had created an organism with an expanded artificial genetic code making DNA testing easier for everyone to use and access. -
Notable Achievements
2015 was a great year for DNA developments, things like observations of mitochondrial DNA movement and cancer growth were the main focus for scientists this year ensuring to not only understand these things but help other understand. -
COVID
In 2020 an infection disease known as "COVID-19" was spread around the world. This allowed for many scientist to study the DNA of this disease and find out what caused it and how to treat it, the outcome of this allowed for many DNA Breakthroughs. -
Continuously Growing
Now in the year 2025, we live in a world where DNA testing is continuously growing. Things like paternity test, ancestry DNA, my heritage DNA, and 23andMe are all sources for people to test their DNA.