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Studying fruit flies
Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were on chromosomes -
One strain of bacteria to another
Fred Griffith, using mice, proved that genetic material could be moved from one strain of bacteria to another. -
Fungus
Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to develop biotechnology drugs today. -
DNA
Chargaff showed that in DNA the number of units of adrenine equaled those of thymine and the number of units of cytosine eaqualed those of guanine. -
"One gene produces one enzyme"
Beatle and Tatum proposed the "One gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis. In 1944 Avery, McCarty, and McLeod established that indeed DNA was the hereditary material that was transferred. -
Blender Experiment
Using their famous "blender experiment," Hershey and Chase proved viruses replicated using DNA and confirmed the role of DNA as the hereditary material. -
X-ray crystallography
Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins established through X-ray crystallography that DNA was indeed a double helix. -
The Structure of DNA
Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA. -
Plasmid DNA
Hayes discovered plasmid DNA, circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria -
Messenger RNA
Walter Gilbert discovered the mechanism of gene expression through his study of messenger RNA. -
Bacterial restriction enzymes
Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA -
64 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 protein. -
Isolated and Purified
DNA plasmids were isolated and purifies by Vinograd. -
Escherichia Coli
Madel and Higa were responsible for the first transformation of the bacterium Escherichia Coli -
Cloning
Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen. -
Genetic engineering
Genentech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded. -
DNA in microorganisms
140 scientists met to draw up guidelines for work with recombinant DNA in microorganisms. Paul Berg was a key organizer. -
Sequence DNA
Sanger and Gilbert found a way to sequence DNA. Given an unknown piece of DNA, they were able to read the correct order of bases of adrenine, 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 ones DNA through a digest by different enzymes. 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 fertilized egg is later implanted in a womb. -
Biotech Companies
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that genetically altered life forms can be patented. This resulted in a huge startup of biotech companies. -
Transgenic Animals
Ohio University scientists made the first transgenic animals. -
Eli Lilly Company
Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria. -
Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer.
Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch transformed plants with Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. -
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
Kary Mullis invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory. -
RFLP in DNA
Jeffries applied RFLP in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases. -
Gene Gun
Genes were moved into an organism through the use of a gene gun. -
Greenhouses and barns
NIH revised safety guidelines for recombinant DNA to include plants grown in greenhouse and animals raised in barns. -
RNA interference
Andrew Fire and Craige Mello discovered RNA interference, silencing of genes, in the worm C. elegans. -
monoclonal antibody (MAb)
Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne used monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology. -
Dolly the sheep
Ian Wilmut cloned dolly the sheep from an adult cell for a eweat the Roslin Institute in Scotland, -
"yeast artificial chromosomes"
Maynard Olson and colleagues at Washington University invented "yeast artifical chromosomes," or YACs, which are expressed vectors for large proteins. -
DNA Chip
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. -
human Genome Project
Dabiri and Garner invented an automated DNA sequencer that had a capability of sequencing 76,800 base pairs per hour, 5-30 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.
