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Discovery of Genes
Studying frit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were on chromosomes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hunt_Morgan -
Isolation of Penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to develop biotechnology drugs today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin -
Chargaff and DNA
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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA -
Beadle and Tatum
Beadle and Tatum proposed the "One gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis. http://epilepsyu.com/blog/breakthrough-two-new-genes-found-linked-to-epilepsy/ -
DNA Heredity
Avery, McCarty, and McLeod established that indeed DNA was the hereditary material that was transferred. http://mashable.com/2013/03/26/23andme/ -
Hayes Discovery of Plasmids
Hayes discovered plasmid DNA, circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes -
Restriction Enzymes
Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA. http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=145453 -
Khorana and Nirenberg
Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 codons (the triplet code of 3 bases in DNA) that code for the 20 amino acids making up proteins. http://upstart.bizjournals.com/multimedia/slideshows/2007/10/23andMe-Genomics.html -
Cloning
Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen. http://tccl.rit.albany.edu/knilt/index.php/Unit_2:_The_Pros_and_Cons_of_Cloning -
Genetech Foundation
Genetech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded. http://www.genentechfoundation.com/
