Biotech Timeline

By Hailey_Denny
  • 9000 BCE

    Humans domesticate crops and livestock

    First animal domesticated were dogs then sheep, goat, cows and pigs shortly after
  • 8000 BCE

    potatoes cultivated for food

  • 2000 BCE

    Biotechnology used yeast to leaven bread and ferment beer.

  • 500 BCE

    Moldy soybean curds (tofu) used to treat boils (China)

    This is important because this is the first antibiotic which gave way to the discovery of many other antibiotics
  • 100

    Powdered Chrysanthemums (china)

    This was used for chest pain, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fevers, colds, headaches, dizziness, and swelling

  • Cells are first described by Hooke

    The cell was first discovered and named by Robert Hooke

  • Leeuwenhoek discoveres protozoa and bacteria

    He called them animalcules

  • Edward Jenner takes pus from a cowpox lesion, inserts it into a boys arm.

    This is important because it not only started the vaccine for cowpox but opened the idea up that they could do this with other diseases.

  • Proteins are discovered

  • First enzyme is discovered and isolated

    Sumner was able to isolate and crystallize the enzyme urease from the jack bean

  • The Escherichia coil bacterium is discovered

    this showed that certain strains of the bacterium were responsible for infant diarrhea and gastroenteritis, an important public health discovery.

  • Louis Pasture develops a rebuttal of the theory of spontaneous generation.Now known as the father of microbiology

    His experiment was actually two test he added nutrient broth to flasks, bent the necks of the flasks into S shapes, and then boiled the broth to kill any existing microbe, in the end he broke off the top of on but left the other to collect dust, the other no life came without dust so he refuted the notion of spontaneous generation.

  • Charles Darwin publishes the theory of evolution by natural selection

    Individuals with heritable traits better suited to the environment will survive.

  • Gregor Mendel discovers the laws of inheritance by studying flowers in his garden

    The science of genetics begins

  • The chromosome is discovered by Waldeyer

    Genes are linked with hereditary disorders

  • Production of cheese, fermentation of wine begins

    Began in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East for cheese and fermentation of wine began in

  • Hermine Muller discovers that radiation causes defects in chromosomes.

  • Sir Alexander Fleming discovers the antibiotic penicillin by chance when he realizes that penicillium mold kills bacteria

    there were ideas of penicillin when ancient Egyptians had the practice of applying moldy bread to infected wounds. But it was not until 1928 that penicillin, the first true antibiotic, was discovered by Alexander Fleming

  • DNA is proven to carry genetic information by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty

  • Phages-viruses that only infect bacteria-are discovered.

    discovered by Frederick W. Twort in Great Britain (1915) and Félix d'Hérelle in France (1917).

  • James Watson and Francis Crick describe the double helical structure of DNA

    Won the 1962 noble prize in medicine or physiology with Maurice Wilkins

  • The amino acid sequence of insulin is discovered by Fredrick Sander.

    This provided help to those who needed insulin dependent people, without it many people would have died.

  • DNA is made in a test tube for the first time.

    Dr. Arthur Kornberg makes DNA in the test tube for the first time

  • Sickle cell disease is shown to occur due to a change in One amino acid

  • The Genetic Code for DNA is cracked

    Three scientist shared the noble prize in physiology or medicine for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis. Marshall Nirenberg, Robert Holley, and Har Gobind Khorana

  • The first automatic protein sequencer is perfected

    Edman-Chemistry protein sequencers the practical process of determining the amino acid sequence of all or part of a protein or peptide.

  • The first complete synthesis of a gene occurs

    Har Gobind Khorana and coworkers

  • Discovery of restriction enzymes that cut and splice genetic material very specifically occurs

    They play a very important role in the construction DNA molecules and in gene cloning experiments.

  • Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer perfect genetic engineering techniques to cut and paste DNA using restriction enzymes

  • The human genome project- an international effort to maps all of the genes in the human genome- is launched

    The draft version of the human genome project is published , making it possible for researchers all over the world to begin developing treatments.

  • The first federally approved gene therapy treatment is successfully on a 4 year old girl with ADA-SCID

    Her name is Ashi DeSilva

  • Scientist report the birth of Dolly

    First mammal to be cloned form an adult cell

  • Human embryonic stem cell lines are established

    They offer hope to many because they may be able to replace diseased of dysfunctional cells

  • The first cloned pet-a kitten- is delivered to its owner.

    Her name is Little Nicky

  • The SARS virus is sequenced three weeks after its discovery

    SARS, which began in china, spreads quickly-and spreads fear throughout the far east and the world. The last reported cases occurred in 2004 and resulted from laboratory-acquired infections

  • NIH begins a 10 year, 10,000 patient study using a genetic test to predict breast cancer recurrence and guides treatment. The test was developed by the biotech company Genomic health, and is already commercially available

  • A recombination vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) receives FDA approval

    HPV causes warts on different parts of the body

  • Trachea derived from stem cells transplanted into human recipient.

    Women had a trachea transplant that made use of her own stem cells

  • FDA approves first cord blood therapy to be used in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation procedures in patients with disorders affecting the hematopoietic (blood forming) system

    In 2009, the FDA issued the Placental/Umbilical Cord Blood Intended for Hematopoietic Reconstitution for Specified Indications

  • Researchers at the J. Craig Venter institute create the first synthetic cell

  • advances in 3-D printing lead to "skin-printing"

    three companies enlisted the help of bioengineers to develop bioprinted skin that could be used for testing cosmetics and consumer preparations.

  • Advances in next generation sequencing enable human whole genome sequencing in less than one week for under $2,000.

    Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can be a predictive tool in the management of cancer and other complex diseases.

  • Scientist successfully adapt CRISPR-Cas9 for genome editing in eukaryotic cells

    this is a big deal because gene editing gives scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA, and The bacteria then use Cas9 to disable the virus