Biotech Timeline

  • 500

    Moldy Soy Bean Curd

    In China the first Antibiotic was created from a moldy soy bean curd which treated boils.The Chinese created the antibiotic by using the residue from the soybean curd and cultivating it with Bacillus subtilis in solid state fermentation.
  • 500

    The Concept of Agriculture

    Ancient humans explored the idea of growing crops/food closer to their shelter. They brought seeds of plants (grains) and sowed them near the shelters. They began to understand the concept of water and light in effect with the plants and seeds.
  • Period: 500 to

    Biotechnology

  • Feb 10, 700

    Cheese Creation

    Cheese is mythed to have been created by transporting milk in the stomach of a cow as a carrier. The cows stomach produces an enzyme, rennin, which when mixed with milk curdles. This exposed the milk to millions of microbes.
  • First Bacteria

    First Bacteria
    The first bacteria is discovered by Antoni, he describes the first bacteria in the letter "animalculi- small animals"
  • Discovery of Amalyse

    Discovery of Amalyse
    Anselme Payen discovers amalyse in a malt solution, this becomes the first description of an enyzme.
  • Fermentation

    Louis Pasteur descibes how fermentation is process that depends on microorganisms.
  • Pea Inheritance

    Pea Inheritance
    Gregor Mendel describes the inheritance of features in peas through his experiments.
  • Discovery of DNA

    Robert Brown discovered nucleus in cells while Fredrich Miescher discovered nuclein which is a compound consisting of nucleic acid. These two discoveries lead to the discovery of DNA and the role it has.
  • Crossbread Cotton

    By crossbreeding the cotton, they produced a species that was superior to previous cottons. This created many species of cotton.
  • Agar

    This was the first solid medium that could isolate pure strands of bacteria. It was discovered by Walter Hesse when he wondered why jelly stayed solid on hot summer days.
  • Vaccination for Small Pox

    Derived from inoculation, which is taking diseased matter and putting it in someone else. The vaccine for small pox is made from a virus called vaccinia. The vaccine helps the body develop an immunity to smallpox.
  • The gene is a gene

    The gene is a gene
    Wilhelm L Johannsen names the term "gene" with assistance from Gregor Mendel's work.
  • Biotechnology is a term

    Biotechnology is a term
    An engineer named Karl Ereky is from Hungary. He names the term "biotechnology"
  • Discovery of Penicillin

    ALexander Fleming discovered antibiotics by observing a microorganism that could be used to kill another microorganism. He noticed that all bacteria was dying when a mold was growing on a petri dish. This allowed him to discover penicillin which is used to fight infectious diseases.
  • Kidney Dialysis Machine

    Kidney Dialysis Machine
    Willem Kolff developed a machine that serps toxins from a pateints blood. It puts the clean blood back into the body as part of the process.
  • DNA is genetic material

    JD Watson and FHC Crick determined DNA to be a genetic material. They did this by giving a model of a structural DNA, known as "Double Helix Model" This explained the concept of DNA replication.
  • DNA is Made in a test tube

    Dr. Hargobind Khorana was able to synthesize DNA in a test tube. And Karl Mullis added more to this discovery by amplifying DNA in a test tube, thousand times more than an original amount of DNA.
  • Restriction Enzymes

    Restriction Enzymes
    They are used to disect DNA and specific locations. Discovered by Werner Arber.
  • Recombinant human insulin

    The human genetic coding for proinsulin is inserted into Escherichia coli cells, which are then grown by fermentation to produce proinsulin.
  • Human Growth Hormone Synthesized

    The synthesis of the hormone was done by ligating 78 deoxyribooligonucleotides, which had been synthesized by polymers.
  • Polymerase chain reaction

    Polymerase chain reaction
    Kary Mullis developed a process for copying sections of DNA.
  • Dolly the Sheep is cloned

    Dolly the Sheep is cloned
    A sheep named Dolly is the first cloned animal. This happened by using an adult cell, which came from an udder cell that was taken from a 6 year old sheep.
  • Human Genome is Successful

    Human Genome is Successful
    The Human Genome project completes the sequencing of the human genome. They are a research project with the goal to determine the sequence of chemical based pairs that make up human DNA.
  • Biotech crops are endorsed

    Biotech crops are endorsed
    UN Food and Agriculture Organization endorse biotech crops because they believe that biotechnology is useful tool to traditional farming methods that help poor farmers produce more food.
  • FDA Approves Gardasil

    Gardasil is recombinant DNA, which is the first vaccine to ever be developed against human papillomavirus (HPV), This is an infection that causes throat and cervical cancers.
  • Pluri Potent Stem

    Pluri Potent Stem
    This is the first induced pluri potent stem. This meant that they could take any cell from any part of the body and turn into an embryotic stem cell.
  • Human Brain Project

    Human Brain Project
    The objective of this project was to stimulate the human brain completely. This included over 80 years of reserach with American, Japanese and many other orgnizations working together.
  • Fertilization of Plants

    Fertilization of Plants
    A technique is discovered for the fertilization of plants, which improves the breeding results in Europe China and the Middle East.
  • Yeast

    Yeast is one of the oldest microbes that is used in the making of multiple other products. When yeast if fermented it can make bread, vinegar, alcohol, and other products.
  • Vinegar

    Vinegar has a very low pH which makes it very capable of of preventing the growth of certain microbes, and so vinegar is used for food preservation.