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Period: to
Before DNA
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Cells and Microorgamisms
Robert Hooke coined the term "cells" and Anton Van Leewenhoek observed the first microorganisms because of the microscope -
Law of Inheritance of Traits
Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk working with pea plants, discovered the simple laws of inheritance of traits that allowed one to predict the outcome of crosses with certain traits. -
Germ Theory
Louis Pasteur described the scientific basis for fermentation, wine making, and the brewing of beer, established the science of mircobiology, and proposed the germ theory, claiming that microorganisms were responsible for infectious diseases. -
DNA Inheritance
Johann Miescher found nucleic acid in white blood cells from pus in bandages. This later led to scientists to believe that DNA might be the inheritable material of an organism. -
Period: to
DNA Science
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Genes on Chromosomes
Studying fruit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were on chromosomes. -
Penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to develop biotechnology drugs today. -
DNA and Hormones
Chargaff showed that in DNA the number of units of adenine equaled those of thymine and the number of units of cytosine equaled those of guanine. -
One Gene Produces One Enzyme
Beadle and Tatum proposed one "One gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis. -
DNA is hereditary
Avery, McCarty, and McLeod established that indeed DNA was the hereditary material that was transfered. -
Viruses Replicate using DNA
Using thier famous "blender experiment" Hershey and Chase proved viruses replicated using -
DNA is a double helix
Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wikins established through X-ray crystallography that DNA was indeed a double helix. -
Structure of DNA
Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA -
Plasmid DNA
Hayes discovered plasmid DNA, circular pices of DNA found in bacteria. -
RNA and gene expression
Walter Gilbert discovered the mechanism of gene expression through his study of messenger RNA. -
Bacterial restriction enzymes and DNA
Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA. -
64 codons
Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 codons (triplet code of 3 bases in DNA) that code for the 20 amino acids making up proteins. -
Purified Plasmids
DNA plasmids were isolated and purified by Vinograd -
Period: to
Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond
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Transformation of bacteria
Madel and Higa were responsible for the first transformation of the bacterium Escherichia coli -
Cloning
Clonung experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen -
Genetic Egineering
Genentech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded. -
Recombinant DNA guidelines
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
Boyer inserted sythetic insulin gene into E. coli -
RFLP
Botstein found that one could be identified bt the patturn made of one's DNA through a digest by different enzymes. This DNA fingerprint was called a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). -
In 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 is later implanted in a womb -
Patented lifr forms
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that geneticaly altered life forms can be patened. This resulted in a huge startup of biotech companies. -
Transgenic Animals
Ohio university scientists made the first transgenic animals -
Insulin Gene inside bacteria
Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria -
Gene Transfer
Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch transformed plants with Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. -
Polymerase chain reaction
Kary Mullis invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory -
DNA in criminal cases
Jeffries applied RFLP in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases -
florescence sequencer
An automated florescence sequencer was invented, speeding up the labor intence process -
gene gun
Genes were moved into an organism through the use of a gene gun -
Revised safety guidelines
NIH revised safety guidelines for recombinant DNA to include plants grown in greenhouses and animals raised in barns -
RNA interference
Andrew Fire and Craig Mellow discovered RNA interference, silencing of genes, in the worm C. elegans -
Monoclonal antibody technology
Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne used monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology -
yeast artificial chromosomes
Maynard Olson and colleagues at Washington University invented "yeast artificial chromosomes" or YAC's, which are expression vectors for large proteins -
Cloning of a sheep
Ian Wilmut cloned Dolly the sheep from adult cell of an ewe at Roslin Institute in Scotland -
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 -
Automated DNA sequencer
Dabiri and Garner invented an automated DNA sequencer that had a capability of sequencing 76,800 base pairs per hour, 5 to 30 times faster than existing sequencers. Technology like the 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 therefor 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
