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Anton Van Leeuwenhoek observes the first microorganisms through the microscope invention.
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Grefor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritence that allow you to predict the outcome through pea plants.
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Louis Pateur described the scientific basis for fermentation, wine making, and the brewing of beer, established the science of microbiology, and proposed the Germ Theory, claiming that microorganisms were responsible for infectious diseases.
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Johann Miescher discovered that DNA may be inheritable.
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Thomas Hunt Morgan found that genes were on chromosomes.
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Fred Griffith proved genetic material could be moved from one strain of bacteria to another.
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Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin which allowed other biotechnology drugs be developed.
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Chargaff showed how in DNA the number of adenine equal the number of thymine and the number of cytosine equal the number of guanine.
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One gene produces one enzyme
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DNA is hereditary material that is transferred.
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Proven that viruses replicate using DNA.
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Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins used X-rays to discover that DNA is a double helix
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The structure of DNA is discovered.
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Hayes found circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria called plasmid DNA.
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Walter Gilbert studied messenger RNA and discovers the mechanism of gene expression.
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Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA.
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Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 codons that code for the 20 amina acids making up proteins.
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DNA plasmids were isolated and purified by Vinograd.
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Madel and Higa were responsible for the first transformation of the bacterium Escherichia coli.
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Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen.
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Genetech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded.
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140 scientists met to draw up guidlines for work with recombinant DNA in microorganisms. Paul Berg was a key organizer.
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Sanger and Gilbert found a way to sequence DNA. Given an unknown piece of DNA, they were able to read the correct order bases of adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine.
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Boyer inserted a synthetic insulin gene into E. coli.
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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 (RFLP).
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Louise Joy Brown was born, the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilization, in which sperm and egg are joined in a petri dish. The fertilized egg is later implanted in a womb.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that genetically altered life forms can be patented. This resulted in a huge startup of biotech companies.
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Ohio University scientists made the first transgenic animals.
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Eli Lilly Company placed human insulin gene inside bacteria.
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Schell Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch tranformed plants with Agrobacterium- mediated gene transter.
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Kary Mullis invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory.
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Jeffries applied RFLP in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases.
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An automated fluorescence sequencer was invented, speeding up the labor-intense process.
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Genes were moved into an organism through the use of a gene gun.
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NIH revised safety guidlines for recombinant DNA to include plants grownin greenhouses and animals raised in barns.
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Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discovered RNA interference, silencing of genes, in the worm C. elegans.
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Kohler, Milstein and Jerne used monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology.
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Maynard Olson and colleagues at Washington University invented "yeast artificial chromosomes," or YACs, which are expression vectors for large proteins.
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Ian Wilmut cloned Dolly the sheep from an adult cell of a ewe at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
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DNA microarray (DNA chip) technology, looking at the expression of all the genes of an organism at one time on a microscope slide or silicon chip, was developed.
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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.
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Ron Breaker coined the term riboswitch for part of an mRNA molecule that can regulate its own activity and therefore gene expression.
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Announcement was made of the completion of the Human Genome Project by Francis Collins and Craig Venter. The project provided the ability to find genes and gave rise to the sequencing of other genomes.
