Major Innovations in the History of Biotechnology

"Cells" and microorganisms

Mar 3, 1600

Robert Hooke coined the term "Cells" and Anton Van Leeuwenhoek observed the first microorganisms because of the invention of the microscope

Simple laws of Inheritance of traits

Mar 3, 1850

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

Fermentation, Science of Microbiology, and the Germ Theory

Mar 3, 1857

Louis Pasteur described the scientific basis for fermentation, wine making, and the brewing of beer, established the science of microbiology, and proposed the Germ Theory that claimed that microorganisms were responsible for infectious diseases.

Nucleic acid

Mar 3, 1869

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

Fruit Flies

Mar 3, 1910

Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were on chromosomes by studying fruit flies.

Mice

Mar 3, 1928

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

Penicillin

Mar 3, 1928

Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus, many of his ideas being used to develope biotechnology drugs today.

DNA

Mar 3, 1935

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

Mar 3, 1941

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "One gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis

DNA is transferred

Mar 3, 1944

Averym McCarty, and McLeod established that DNA was the hereditary material that was transferred.

The Blender Experiment

Mar 3, 1953

Hershey and Chase used their "Blender experiment" to prove viruses replicated using DNA and confirmed the role of DNA as the hereditary material

double helix

Mar 3, 1953

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

Structure of DNA

Mar 3, 1953

Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA.

Plasmid DNA

Mar 3, 1953

Hayes discovered circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria called plasmid DNA.

Mechanism of gene expression

Mar 3, 1961

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

Bacterial restriction enzymes

Mar 3, 1962

Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA.

64 Codons

Mar 3, 1966

Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 condons, or the triplet code of 3 bases in DNA, that code for the 20 amino acids making up proteins.

isolated and purified

Mar 3, 1967

DNA plasmids were isolated and purified by Vinograd.

Escherichia Coli

Mar 4, 1970

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

Cloning

Mar 4, 1972

Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen.

Genentech

Mar 4, 1973

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

Recombinant DNA

Mar 4, 1976

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

Sequence DNA

Mar 4, 1977

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

E. coli

Mar 4, 1978

Boyer inserted a synthetic insulin gene into E. coli.

Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism(RFLP)

Mar 4, 1978

Botstein found that one could be identified by the pattern made of one's DNA through a digest by different enzymes, this DNA fingerprint was called a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism.

Genetically altered life forms

Mar 4, 1980

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that genetically altered life forms can be patented, this resuted in a huge startup of biotech companies.

first transgenic animals

Mar 4, 1980

Ohio University scientist made the first transgenic animals.

human insulin gene

Mar 4, 1982

Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria.

Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer

Mar 4, 1983

Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch transformed plants with Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Mar 4, 1983

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

RFLP applied in DNA

Mar 4, 1985

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

Gene Gun

Mar 5, 1985

Genes were moved into an organism through the use of a gene gun.

Automated fluorescence

Mar 5, 1985

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

NIH

Mar 4, 1994

NIH revised safety guidelines for recombinant DNA to include plants grown in greenhouses and animals raised in barns.

C. Elegans

Mar 4, 1996

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

Louise Joy Brown

Mar 4, 1997

Louise Joy Brown, the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilization where sperm and egg are joined in a petri dish and when the egg is fertilized, implanted in a womb, was born.

Monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology

Mar 4, 1997

Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne used monoclonal antibody technology.

"Yeast artificial chromosomes"

Mar 4, 1997

Maunard Olson and colleagues at Washington University invented "yeast artificial chromosomes," or YACs, which are expression vectors for large proteins.

Dolly the sheep

Mar 4, 1997

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

DNA chip

Mar 5, 1997

DNA microarray(DNA chip) techmology, 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 speed up

Mar 5, 1999

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 this greatly sped up the Human Genome Project.

Human Genome Project

Mar 4, 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 sequencin gof other genomes.