History of Biotechnology

Before DNA

Mar 4, 1600

Robert Hooke coined the term "cells" and Anton Van Leeuwenheok observed the first microorganisims because of the invention of the microsccope.

Before DNA

Period: Mar 4, 1600 to Mar 4, 1900

Before DNA

Mar 4, 1850

Gregor Mendel, and Austrian monk working with pea plants, discovered the simple laws of inheritance of traits that allowed one to predict the outcome of crosses with certain traits.

Before DNA

Mar 4, 1857

Louis Pasteur described the scientifc basis for fermentation, wine making, and the brewing of beer, established the science of mircobiology, and proposed the Germ Theory, claiming that microorganisms were reponsible for infectious diseases.

Before DNA

Mar 4, 1869

Johann Miescher found nucliec acid in white blood cells from pus in bandages. This later led scientists to believe that DNA might be the inheritable material of an organism.

DNA Science

Period: Mar 4, 1900 to Mar 4, 1970

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1910

Studying fruit flies, Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered that genes were on chromosomes.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1928

Fred Griffith, using mice, proved that genetic material could be moved from one strain of bacteria to another.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1928

Sir Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to developed biotechnology drugs today.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1935

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 quanine.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1941

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "one gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1944

Avery, McCarty, and McLeod established that indeed DNA was the hereditary material that was transferred.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1953

Using their famous "blender experiment", Hershey and Chase proved viruses replicated using DNA and confirmed the role of DNA as the heredity material.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1953

Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins establised through X-ray crytallography that DNA was indeed a double helix.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1953

Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1953

Hayes discovered plasmid DNA, circluar pieces of DNA found in bacteria.

DNA Science

Mar 4, 1961

Walter Gibert discovered the mechanism of gene expression through his study of messenger RNA.

DNA Science

Mar 5, 1962

Arber, Nathans, and Smith discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA.

DNA Science

Mar 5, 1966

Khorana and Nirenberg discovered the 64 codons( the triplet code of 3 bases in DNA) that code fro the 20 amino acids makingup problems.

DNA Science

Mar 5, 1967

DNA plasmids were isolated and purified by Vinograd.

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1970

Madel and Higa were rsponsible for the first transformation of hte bacterium Escherichia coli.

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Period: Mar 5, 1970 to Mar 5, 2014

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1972

Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen.

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1973

Genentech, the world's first genetic engineering company, was founded.

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1976

140 scienctists met to draw up guidelines for work with recombinant DNA in microorganisms. Paul Berg was a key organizer.

New Tools in the Lab

Mar 5, 1977

Sander and GIlbert found a way to sequence DNA. Given an unknown piece of DNA, they were able to read the correct order of bases of adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine.

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1978

Boyer inserted a synthetic sinsulin gene into E. coli

Recombinant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1978

Bostein found that one could be identified by the pattern made of one's DNA through a digest by different enzyms. This DNA fingerprint was called a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorhism (RFLP)

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1978

Louise Joy Brown was born, the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilization, in which sperm and egg are joined in petri dish. The fertilized egg is later implanted in a womb.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1980

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that genetically altered life forms can be patented. This resulted in a huge startup of biotech companies.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1980

Ohio University scientists made the first transgenic animals.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1982

Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1983

Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch transformed plants with Agrobacterim-mediated gene transfer.

New Tools in the Lab

Mar 5, 1983

KAry Mullis inveted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the Labortory.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1985

Jeffries applied RFLP in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases.

New Tools in the Lab

Mar 5, 1985

An automated fluorecnce sequencer was inveted, speeding up the labor-intense process.

New Tools in the Lab

Mar 5, 1985

Genes were moved into an organism through the use of a gene gun.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1994

NIH revised safety guidlines for recombinant DNA to include plants grown in greehouses and animals raised in barns.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1996

Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discovered RNA interference, silencing of genes, in the worm C. elegans.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1997

Kohler, Milstien, and Jerne used monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1997

Maynard Olson and colleagues at Washington University invented "yeast artifical chromosomes," or YACs, which are expression vectors for large proteins.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 1997

Ian WIlmut cloned Dolly the sheep from an adult cell of a ewe at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.

New Tools in the Lab

Mar 5, 1997

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.

New Tools in the Lab

Mar 5, 1999

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.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 2002

Ron Breaker coined the term riboswitch for part of an mRNA molecule that can regulate its own activity and therefore gene expression.

Recominant DNA Technology and Beyond

Mar 5, 2003

Announcement was made of hte completion of the Human Genome Project (initated in 1990) by Francis Collins and Craig Venter. The project provided provided the ability to find genes and gave rise to the sequencing of other genomes.