History of Biotechnology

7000 BCE

Jan 1, 1000

In 7000 BCE, the Chinese discover fermentation through beer making,

History of Biotechnology

Period: Sep 10, 1000 to Sep 10, 2015

5000 BCE

Sep 10, 1050

Mesopatamians used bacteria to convert wine into vinegar.

4000 BC

Sep 10, 1100

Chinese used lactic acid bacteria to make yogurt molds to produce molds and fermentation to make vinegar and soy sauce.

4000, BCE

Sep 10, 1100

A mixture of flour meal was left out longer for a long day and and the yeats that occur in natural contaminants of tthe flour began to ferment before baking. The resulting bread would have been lighter and more tastry than normal, flat bread

1495 BC

Sep 10, 1300

Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent a team to the Land of Punt. This area, now modern-day Somalia, was used to gather specimens of plants that could be used to produce valuable frankeninsense.

100 BCE

Sep 10, 1400

The Chinese use chrysanthemum as a natural insecticide. This substance was used to kill bugs and insects.

Discovery of Cells

Sep 10, 1663

In 1663, Robert Hooke made the first recorded description of living cells. He saw cell walls and cork tissue of a plant cell.

Leewenhoek

Sep 10, 1675

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovers and describes bacteria and protozoa. He examined scrapings from his teeth under a microscope and discovered some microbes.

Hybrid Plants

Sep 10, 1700

Thomas Fairchild creates Europe's first hybrid plant, By taking pollen from a carnation and inserting into a sweet william flower, he was able to create a hybrid plant.

First Viral Vaccine

Sep 10, 1796

Edward Jenner uses the first viral vaccine to inoculate a child with smallpox. He scraped the pus of the scrapings of cowpox from milkmaids and inoculated him in both arms

Proteins Discovered

Sep 11, 1838

Protein discovered, named and recorded by Gerardus Johannes Mulder and Jöns Jacob Berzelius. They proposed that animals draw their proteins from consuming plants.

Mendel

Sep 10, 1866

Mendel discovered the basic laws of herdity and laid the foundation for science of modern genetics. His work was not recognized until 12 years after his death.

Hoppe-Seyler

Sep 10, 1871

Ernst Hoppe-Seyler discovers invertase, which is still used for making artificial sweeteners. Invertase catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose.

Walther Flemming

Sep 10, 1878

Walther Flemming discovers chromatin leading to the discovery of chromosomes. Chromatin is a complex of macromolecules consisting of DNA, RNA, and protein.

Yeast Enzymes

Sep 10, 1897

Enzymes from yeast can convert sugar to alcohol for chemicals like butanol, acetone, and glycerol. These fermentation processes are still in use today.

Alexander Fleming

Sep 11, 1928

Alexander Fleming notices that a certain mould could stop the duplication of bacteria, leading to the first antibiotic: penicillin. They began to be used to treat infections in 1942 and were caused by staphylococci and streptococci.

Wallace

Sep 10, 1933

Henry A. Wallace experimented with corn that would produce large number of brushels per acre. There was a severe drought that revealed the advantage of the hybrid corn. It became comercially available this year.

Chemically Caused Mutations

Sep 10, 1941

Chemical mutagens were not demonstrated to cause mutations until the 1940s when Charlotte Auerbach and JM Robson found that mustard gas can cause mutations in fruit flies.

Watson and Crick

Sep 10, 1953

James D. Watson and Francis Crick describe the structure of DNA. DNA is said to have a double helix structure composed of two strands of proteins, a 3 prime and a 5 prime.

Cohen and Boyer

Sep 10, 1973

Cohen and Boyer successfully demonstrated the potential impact of DNA recombinant engineering on medicine and pharmacology. They reported the construction of functional organisms that combined and replaced genetic information from different species. This launched the modern biotech era.

DNA Sequencing

Sep 11, 1975

Walter Gilbert and Alan Maxim and Fred Sanger simutaneously came up with 2 techniques to determine the exact sequencing of bases that make up a gene. Gilbert and Sanger share the 1980 Nobel Prize for this discovery.

Humulin

Sep 10, 1982

Humulin, Genentech's human insulin drug produced by genetically engineered bacteria for the treatment of diabetes, is the first biotech drug to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Genentech Launches own Product

Sep 11, 1985

Genentech becomes the first biotech company to launch its own bippharmaceutical product. ProTropin- is a growth hormone for children with growth hormone deficiencies.

First Use of Gene Therapy

Sep 11, 1990

First use of gene therapy to treat a human patient. A 4 year old girl with ADA Deficiency has a normal ADA gene inserted into her T-cells and reintroduce ADA into her bloodstream. Since she suffered form a rare immune deficiency which resulted form the lack of a gene, she was infused with about 1 billion white blood cells that were engineered through recombinant DNA technology.
This is important and intersting because it allowed researchers to engineer cells that attack specific microbes/tumors.

Bone Marrow Transplant

Sep 11, 1995

The first baboon to human bone marrow transplant is performed on an AIDS patient. The hope is that millions of bone marrow cells, believed to be resistant to the AIDS virus, will multply to rescue the man´s severely damaged immune system.

Dolly the Sheep

Jul 5, 1997

British scientists, led by Ian Wilmut from the Roslin Institute, report cloning Dolly the sheep using DNA from two adult sheep cells. Using the process of nuclear tranfer, the animal was cloned from an adult somatic cell. Scientists used an udder cell from a 6 year old sheep and kept the cells alive by altering their growth medium.
This is important because this is the first time a mammal has been cloned from an adult cell. This is very interesting since it opens the door for future cloning.

First Human Artificial Chromosome

Sep 11, 1997

By synthesizing the essential components of a human chromosone, it was discovered that human cells would assemble the inserted pieces into a working chromosome. This serves as a mechanism for theuraputic genes.

Human Genome Project Ends

Apr 10, 2003

The Human Genome Project is completed, providing information on the locations and sequence of human genes on all 46 chromosomes. The plan went underway in 1990 and was originally planned to map the nucleotides contained in a human haploid reference genome.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine

Sep 11, 2006

FDA approves a recombinant vaccine against HPV, which can cause genital warts and cervical cancer. Scienctists determine the 3D of HIV which causes AIDS.

Biosimilar Drugs

Sep 11, 2012

FDA issues draft rules on biosimilar drugs. This has manufacturers create lower-costing drugs for cancer patients to potentially fight their cancer and diseases.