Innovations in Biotechnology

Cells and microscope

Jan 2, 1600

Robert Hooke coined term "cells" and Anton Van Leeuwenhoek observed first microorganism because of invention of microscope.

Laws of inheritance

Mar 3, 1850

Gregor Mendel, Austrian monk working with pea plants discovered simple laws of inheritance of traits that allowed one to predict the outcome of crosses with certain traits.

Fermentation

Mar 3, 1857

Louis Pasteur described the scienctific fermentation processes, whine making and beer brewing establisehd the science of microbiology, and proposed Germ Theory, claiming that microganisms were responsible for infectious diseases.

Nucleic acid

Jan 3, 1869

Johann Miesch found nucleic acid in white blood cells fro pus in bandages. This later led sscientists to believe that DNA might be the inheritable material of an organism.

Fruit flies - DNA science

Mar 3, 1910

Studying Fruit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were chromosomes.

Drugs- DNA science

Feb 3, 1928

Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to develop biotechnology drugs today

Mice Tests - DNA science

Mar 3, 1928

Fred Griffith, using mice, proved that genetic materials could be moved from one strain of bacteria to another.

DNA units- DNA science

Mar 3, 1935

Chargaff showed that in DNA the muber of units of adenine equaled those of thymine and the number of units of cytosine equaled those of quanine.

Heredity material- DNA science

Mar 3, 1941

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "One gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis. 1944 Avery, McCarty, and McLeod established that indeed DNA was the heredity material that was transferred.

Plasmid DNA -DNA science

Feb 4, 1953

Hayes discovered plasmid DNA, circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria

blender experiment- DNA science

Mar 3, 1953

using their famous "blender experiment" Hershey and chase proved viruses replicated using DNA and confirmed the role of DNA as the hereditary material.

Structure of DNA - DNA science

Mar 4, 1953

Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA

XRAY- DNA science

Mar 4, 1953

Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins established through X-ray crystallography that DNA was indeed a double helix.

Gene expression -DNA science

Mar 4, 1961

Walter Gilbert discovered the mechanism of gene expression through his study of messenger RNA

Bacterial restriction- DNA science

Mar 4, 1962

Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restricion enyzmes that cut dna

codons -DNA science

Mar 4, 1966

Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 codons that code for the 20 amino acids making up proteins

Vinogard- DNA

Mar 5, 1967

DNA plasmids were isoltaed and purified by Vinogard

Escherichia coli

Mar 4, 1970

Madel and Higa were responsible for the first transformation of the bacterium Escherichia coli

Cloning experiments - DNA technology

Mar 4, 1972

Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen

Genentech

Mar 4, 1973

Genentech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded

recombinant DNA guidelines- DNA technology

Mar 4, 1976

140 scientists met to draw up guidelines for work with the recombinant DNA in microorganisms. Paul Berg was a key organizer

Sequence of DNA- new tools in the lab

Mar 5, 1977

Sanger and Gilbert found a way to sequence DNA. Given and unknown piece of DNA, they were able to read the correct order of bases of adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine

DNA fingerprint- DNA technology

Feb 5, 1978

Bostein 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)

synthetic insulin- DNA

Mar 5, 1978

Boyer inserted a synthetic insulin gene into E. coli

Louise- Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1978

Louise Joy Brown was born, the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilization, in which sper and egg are joined in a petri dish. The fertilizied egg is later implanted in a womb

genetically altered life forms patented- DNA technology

Mar 5, 1980

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- DNA technology

Apr 5, 1980

Ohio Universoty scientists made the first transgenic animals

Eli Lily Company- DNA technology

Mar 5, 1982

Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria

Agrobacterium

Mar 5, 1983

Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch trans formed plants with Agrobacterium- mediadted gene tranfer

polymerase chain reaction

Mar 5, 1983

Kary Mullis invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory

DNA profiling

Mar 5, 1985

Jeffries applied RFLP in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases

Sequencer- new tools in the lab

Mar 5, 1985

an automated fluorescence sequencer was invented, speeding up the labor intense process.

Gene gun- new tools in the lab

Mar 5, 1985

Genes were moved into an organism though the use of gene gun

NIH

Mar 5, 1994

NIH revised safety guidelines fro recombinant to include plants grown in greenhouses and animals rasied in barns

RNA interference

Mar 5, 1996

Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discovered RNA interference, scilencing of genes, in the worm C. elegans

monoclonal antibody technology

Mar 5, 1997

Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne used monoconal antibody (MAb) technology.

YACS

Mar 5, 1997

Maynard Olson and colleagues at washington university invented "yeast artificial chromosomes" or YACS which are expression vectors for large proteins

Dolly

Mar 5, 1997

Ian Wilmut cloned Dolly the sheep from an adult cell of a ewe at the Roslin Institute in Scottland

DNA microarray

Mar 5, 1997

DNA microarray (DNA chip) technoogy, looking at the expression of all genes of an organism at one time on a microscope slide or silicon chip, was developed

Human Genome Project

Mar 5, 1999

Dabiri and Garner invented an automated DNA sequencer that hasd a capability of sequencing 76,800 base pairs per hour, 5 to 30 times faster thatn existing sequencers. technology like this greatly sped up the Human Genome Project

mRNA

Mar 5, 2002

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

Mar 5, 2003

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.