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Maurice Lemoigne
Maurice Lemoigne was a french biologist and enginner that discovered the first biodegradable or PHB. He was working with the microbe Bacillius megaterium and discovered that it produced PHB when nutrients were scare and the conditions were "stressful" for the bacteria. At the time, petroleum was cheap and readily available and so Lemoignes discovery was ignored for many years. Now PHB is one of several bio-based and biodegradable plastics on the market. He later died on march 9, 1967. -
Ludwig Haberlandt
Ludwig Haberlandt was the first to develop a hormone-based contraceptive in 1921. Both his father and grandfather were eminent plant scientists. Haberlandt demonstrated that transplanting sections of rabbit ovary from a pregnant rabbit into another female could stop fertilization, or a short period. And by 1930, he was testing a hormone preparation for contraception in clinical trials in Hungary. Sadly, is believed that he comitted suicide in 1932. -
Brigitte Askonoas
Brigitte Askonas was born in Austria to Czech parents, but spent much of her life in Canada, the US and the UK. She was instrumental in designing one of the early methods for creating monoclonal antibodies, now widely used for treating cancer and autoimmune disease. She also discovered that immune cells called T-killer cells have the ability to recognise viral sub-types, a principle now being used to develop vaccines against a variety of infections including influenza and HIV. -
Antibiotics - Alexander Flemning
Alexander Fleming was a bit disorderly in his work and accidentally discovered penicillin. Upon returning from a holiday in Suffolk in 1928, he noticed that a fungus, penicillium-notatum had contained a culture plate of Staphylococcus bacteria he had accidentally left uncovered with mold, which became antibiotics. Antibiotics are used to treat or prevent some types of bacterial infection. He died march 11, 1955. -
Wilhelm Roux
Wilhelm Roux was born on June 9 1850 and was a clinical doctor, that spent much of his carrier doing experiments in the field of embryology in animals. He is most well known for establishing the principles of tissue culture, an extremely widely used technique in modern labs. In 1885, he managed to keep neuronal cells taken from a chicken embryo alive in a warm saline solution for 13 days, a technique that was later refined and expanded on by other scientists. He died on September 24, 1924. -
Recombinant DNA
Stanley Cohen's and Herbert Boyers invention on how to splice pieces of DNA from different sources ushered in the era of molecular genetics. This is the patent that led to the founding of Gene-tech. They were the first scientists to transplant genes from one living organism to another, a fundemental discovery for genetic engineering. Thousands of product have been developed on the basis of their work, including human growth hormone and hepatitis B vaccine. -
Monoclonal Antibodies
Monoclonal antibodies is one of the most important inventions in biotechnology. Found by Georges Köhler and Cesar Milstein.
Monoclonal antibodies are a preparation of pure antibodies having the same molecular structure. Their exquisite target specificity has found use in medicine, diagnosis and analyte purification. The two were awarded the Nobel Prize for this invention in 1984. -
Tesla
Tesla was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers (Martin Eberhard & Marc Tarpenning) who wanted to prove that peple didnt need to compromise to drive electric- and that it is better in every way. Elon Musk joined Tesla in 2004, after investing 6.3 million in Tesla stocks during a Series A round of investment. Musk was appointed to the position of Chairman of its Board of Directors. Tesla owns and operates the largest global, fast charging, network in the world.