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Jenner inoculates a child with a viral vaccine to protect him from smallpox.
Without the breakthrough of this immunisation, scientist may not have discovered or perfected the vaccine until alot later in life. Now with the help of this vaccine people all around the world can be protected from not only smallpox but other viral diseases aswell. -
Dutrochet discovers that tissue is composed of living cells.
This discovery has helped scientists around the world get a better understanding of the human body. -
The Escherichia coli bacterium is discovered.
This discovery later became a major research, development, and production tool for biotechnology. By discovering this bacteria scientist have been able to find out more about good and bad bacteria and how they can benefit living organisms. -
Mendel, in his study of peas, discovers that traits were transmitted from parents to progeny by discrete, independent units, later called genes.
This observation lay the groundwork for the field of genetics and without Mendel's finding of these microscopical genes that hold the information to build and maintain an organism's cells, many of todays biotechnology breakthroughs, such as genetic engineering, cloning, Gm foods and Designer babies may not have even been unearthed. -
Miescher discovers DNA in the sperm of trout.
Before this discovery scientists obviously didnt know that DNA was present or transferred through sperm. By making this discovery scientist could later learn that not only sperm had DNA in it, but so did the women's eggs. This was a huge breakthrough for the research of genes and the genetics of each human being. -
Flemming discovers chromatin, the rod-like structures inside the cell nucleus that later come to be called "chromosomes."
By making this discovery scientists have been able to learn more about cells and find out what they are made up of. The discovery of chromosomes would have expanded the human knowledge of DNA, cells and other important aspects of biotechnology. -
Genes are linked with hereditary disorders
Scientists realising that our genes are passed down from our parents made a huge difference in biotechnology. We now know why our eye colour, hair, skin colour etc is the way it is. This breakthrough has also enabled us to search further into the issue and we can now genetically modify organisms in order to make them the way we want them. We now have an understanding that disorders and diseases can be passed down through our genes aswell which is very important for our health. -
The word "biotechnology" is first used by a Hungarian agricultural engineer.
This is when biotechnology was first introduced to the world as the use of plants, animals and other micro-organisms to produce products for human use. Although this happened a very long time ago our knowledge of biotechnology has grown immensely in the past 9 decades and we have been able to find new and inventive ways to produce beneficial products throughout the world. -
DNA is shown to be the material substance of the gene.
With further research into genes, scientist were able to define what they are made of. This information is very important and used extensively in todays society and in the future. Without this knowledge and understanding of genes biotechnology would almost be impossible today. -
Kornberg discovers the enzyme DNA polymerase I, leading to an understanding of how DNA is replicated.
Each and everyday our body replicates its DNA. By scientists discovering this process we now have a wider knowledge of how our body functions.
