Major Innovations in the History of Biotechnology

By lexis
  • Invention of the microscope

    Robert Hook & Anton Van Leeuwenhoek- observed the first microoganisms.
  • Simple laws of inheritance of traits

    Gregor Mendel- worked with pea plants, allowed one to predict the outcome of crosses with certain triaits.
  • Lous Pasteur

    Scientific basis for fermentation, wine making, and brewing of beer, established the science of microbiology, proposed germ theory, claiming microorganisms were responsible for infections diseases
  • Nucleic Acid

    Johann Miescher found nucleic acid in white blood cells from pus in bandages, later led to believe DNA might be inheritable material
  • Studying fruit flies

    Thomas Hunt Morgan; discovered genese were on chromosome
  • Fred Griffith

    using mice, showed that genetic material could moved from on strain of bacteria to another.
  • Sir Alexander Fleming

    isolated penicillin from a fungus. Many of his ideas are used to develope drugs
  • Chargaff and DNA

    he showed that in DNA the adenine and thymine equaled and the number of units if cytosine equaled those of guanine
  • Beadle and Tatum

    Beadle and Tatum
    Proposed " one gene produces one enzyme" and established that indeed DNA was hereditary material.
  • "Blender Experiment"

    "Blender Experiment"
    Hershey and Chase proved virues replicated using DNA and confirmed the role of DNA was hereditary.
  • X-ray Crystallography

    X-ray Crystallography
    Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins established, and that DNA was indeed a double Helix
  • Watson and Crick

    Watson and Crick
    Discvored the structure of DNA
  • Discover of Plasmid DNA

    Discover of Plasmid DNA
    Hayes discoverd it, a circular pieces of DNA found in bacteria.
  • Walter Gilbert

    Walter Gilbert
    Discovered the mechanism of gene expression through his study of messenger RNA
  • Arber,Nathans,and Smith

    Arber,Nathans,and Smith
    discovered bacterial restriction enzymes that cut DNA
  • Khorana and Nirenberg

    Khorana and Nirenberg
    Discovered the 64 condons that code for the 20 amino acids making proteins.
  • DNA plasmids

    DNA plasmids
    Isolated and purified by Vinograd
  • Madel and Higa

    Madel and Higa
    responsible for the first transformation of the bacterium Escherichia Coli
  • Cloning

    Cloning
    experiments were conducted by Boyer and Cohen
  • Genentech

    Genentech
    The worlds first genetic engineering company was founded
  • 140 scientists

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

    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
  • Boyer

    Boyer
    inserted a synthetic insulin gene into E coli
  • Botstein

    Botstein
    found that one could be identified by the pattern made of ones DNA through a digest by different enzymes. This DNA fingerprint was called a Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism
  • Louise Joy Brown was born

    Louise Joy Brown was born
    the first human baby resulting from in vitro fertilization in which sperm and egg are joined in a pertri dish. fertilized egg is later inplanted in a womb
  • US supreme court

    US supreme court
    ruled that genetically altered life forms can be patented, this resulted in a huge startup of biotech companies
  • Ohio University

    Ohio University
    scientists made the first transgenic animals
  • Eli Lilly Company

    Eli Lilly Company
    placed a human insulin gene inside bacteria
  • Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Farley, and Horsch

    Schell, Chilton, Van Montagu, Farley, and Horsch
    transformed plants with Agrobacterium- mediated gene transfer
  • Kary Mullis

    Kary Mullis
    invented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA in the laboratory
  • Jeffries applied RFLP

    Jeffries applied RFLP
    in DNA profiling to the study of criminal cases
  • Automated Flourescence sequencer

    Automated Flourescence sequencer
    speeding up the labor intense process.
  • Gene gun

    Gene gun
    genes were moved into an organism
  • NIH revised saftey guidelines

    NIH revised saftey guidelines
    for recombinant DNA to include plants gronw in greenhouses and animals raised in barns
  • Andrew Fire and Craig Mello

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

    Monoclonal antibody technology
    used by Kohler, Milstein, and Jerne
  • Yeast Artificial Chromosomes

    Yeast Artificial Chromosomes
    Maynard Olson and Colleagues at Washington University, which are expression vectors for large proteins
  • Ian Wilmut

    Ian Wilmut
    cloned Dolly the sheep from an adult cell of ewe at Foslin Institute in Scottland
  • DNA microarray technology

    DNA microarray technology
    looking at the expression of all the genes of an organism at one time on a microscope slide or silicon chip was developed
  • Ron Breaker

    Ron Breaker
    coined the rrem riboswitch for part of an mRNA molecule that can regulate its own activity and therefore gene expression
  • Completion of Human Genome Project

    Completion of Human Genome Project
    by Francis Collins and Craig Venter, project provided the ability to find genes and gave rise to the sequencing of other genmoes
  • Dabiri and Garner

    Dabiri and Garner
    invented an automated DNa sequencer that had a capability f sequencing 76800 base pairs per hour, 5 to 30 times faster than existing sequencers