Inovations and History of Biotechnology

"cells" and microorganisms

Mar 3, 1600

Robert Hooke coined the term "cells" and Anton Van Leeuwenhoek observed the first microorganism because of the invention

simple laws of inheritance traits

Mar 3, 1850

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

science of microbiology

Mar 3, 1857

Louis Pasteur 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.

nucleic acid in white blood cells

Mar 3, 1869

Johann Miescher found nucleic 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.

Discovery of genes in chromosomes

Mar 3, 1910

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

Discovery that genetic material can be moved

Mar 3, 1928

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

Isolation of penicillin from fungus

Mar 3, 1928

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

DNA

Mar 3, 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 guanine.

Enzyme Hypthesis

Mar 3, 1941

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "One gene produces one enzyme" hypothesis. 1944 Avery, McCarthy, and McLeod established that indeed DNA was the hereditary material that was transferred.

viruses

Mar 3, 1953

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

X-ray crystallography

Mar 3, 1953

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

Structure of DNA

Mar 3, 1953

Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA.

Plasmid DNA

Mar 3, 1953

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

Gene expression

Mar 3, 1961

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

Bacterial restriction enzymes

Mar 3, 1962

Arber, Nathans, and Smith discoverd baterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA

64 codons

Mar 3, 1966

Khorana and Nirenberg discoverd the 64 codons (the triplet code of 3 bases in DNA) that code for the 20 amino acids making up protiens.

DNA plasmids isolated and purifies

Mar 4, 1967

DNA plasmids were isolated and purified by Vinograd.

Transformation of bacterium

Mar 4, 1970

Madel and Higa were responsible for the first transformation of bacterium Escherichia Coli.

Cloning experiments

Mar 4, 1972

Cloning experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen.

First genetic enineering company

Mar 4, 1973

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

Recombinant

Mar 4, 1976

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

New way to sequence DNA

Mar 5, 1977

Sanger 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.

Synthetic insulin

Mar 4, 1978

Boyer insereted a synthetic insulin gene into E. coli.

Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism

Mar 4, 1978

Botstein found that one could be identified by the pattern made of on'e DNA through a digest by different enzymes. This DNA fingerprint was called a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP).

Louise Joy Brown was born

Mar 4, 1978

Louise Joy Brown was inborn, 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.

Startup of biotech companies

Mar 4, 1980

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

First transgenic animals

Mar 4, 1980

Ohio University scientists made the first transgenic animals.

Human insulin gene in bacteria

Mar 4, 1982

Eli Lilly Company placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria.

Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer

Mar 4, 1983

Schell, Chiltion, Van Montagu, Fraley, and Horsch transformed plants with Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer.

Polymerase chain reaction

Mar 5, 1983

Kary Mullis invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory.

RFLP in DNA profiling

Mar 4, 1985

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

Automated fluorescnece sequencer

Mar 5, 1985

An automated flourescence sequencer was invented, speeding up the labor-intense process.

Gene gun

Mar 5, 1985

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

NIH revised safety guidelines

Mar 4, 1994

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

RNA interference

Mar 4, 1996

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

Monoclonal antibody technology

Mar 4, 1997

Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne used monoclonal antibody (MAb) technology,

Yeast artificial chromosomes

Mar 4, 1997

Maynard Olson and colleagues at Washington Universtiy invented "yeast artificial chromosomes," or YACs, which are expresssion vectors for large proteins.

Cloned Dolly the sheep

Mar 4, 1997

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

DNA microarray technology

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.

Automated DNA sequencer

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 exisiting sequencers. Technology like this greatly sped up the Human Genome Project.

Riboswitch

Mar 4, 2002

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

Human Genome Project

Mar 4, 2003

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