Joseph and Chandler's Biotech Timeline

  • Sep 8, 1117

    First Food Sterilization

    The process of heating wine for preservation purposes has been known in China since 1117, and is documented in Japan in 1568 in the diary Tamonin-nikki, but the modern version was created by the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, after whom it is named.
  • First Vaccine

    Dr Edward Jenner discovered the first vaccine in 1796 and published his findings in 1798. It was a vaccine for Smallpox.
  • First Public vaccination campaign

    On September 1, 1803, King Charles IV of Spain issued a royal order announcing the arrival of a vaccination expedition and commanding their support to vaccinate the masses free of charge against smallpox
  • Discovery pf Proteins

    Gerardus Johannes Mulder gave the name protein to descibe very large molecules that he found in egg whites, blood serum albumin, fibrin, and wheat gluten.
  • Discovery of genetic inheritance patterns

    Gregor Mendel discovered genetic inheritance patterns when he was experimenting with pea plants
  • Discovery of Enzymes

    In the 19th century, when studying the fermentation of sugar to alcohol by yeast, Louis Pasteur came to the conclusion that this fermentation was catalyzed by a vital force contained within the yeast cells called "ferments", which were thought to function only within living organisms. Wilhelm Kühne first used the term enzyme to describe this process.
  • Discovery of DNA Structure

    Phoebus Levene at the Rockefeller Institute identified the components (the four bases, the sugar and the phosphate chain) and he showed that the components of DNA were linked in the order phosphate-sugar-base
  • First Antibiotic

    Alexand Flemming discovered penicillin, when he came back from a trip and discovered a mold was killing bacteria on an old plate.
  • Avery's/Macleod Experiment

    The Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment was an experimental demonstration by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty, that DNA is the substance that causes bacterial transformation
  • Hershey-Chase Experiment

    The Hershey–Chase experiments were a series of experiments conducted by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase, which helped to confirm that DNA was the genetic material.
  • 1st gene squenced

    Walter Fiers and his team at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the University of Ghent were the first to determine the sequence of a gene.
  • 1st Recombinant organism

    an existing bacterium E. coli expressing an exogenic Salmonella gene
  • First Transgenic Animal

    the creation of the first "transgenic animal" was accomplished by transferring a gene from one animal to the embryo of another--a mouse--in such a way that the gene would be expressed in the mouse and in its future offspring. The transgenic technology was developed by Richard Palmiter of the UW Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with Ralph Brinster of the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Human Genome Project

    The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint
  • 1st biotech drug

    Insulin was discovered by a four-man research team at the University of Toronto
  • 1st GM Food

    The first commercially grown genetically modified whole food crop was a tomato (called FlavrSavr), which was modified to ripen without softening, by Calgene, later a subsidiary of Monsanto. Calgene took the initiative to obtain FDA approval for its release in 1994 without any special labeling, although legally no such approval was required
  • First Cloned Organism

    Dolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland. She was born on 5 July 1996 and she lived until the age of six.
  • human embryonic stem cell line established

    Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. together with colleagues announced the development of five human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines without the destruction of embryos
  • PGD technique conceived

    Robert Edwards and David Gardner reported the successful sexing of rabbit blastocysts, setting the first steps towards PGD.