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Biotech Time Line
A selection of highlights
Biotech Time Line
Humans domesticate crops and livestock
4000 BC
Biotech Time Line
1660s
Antoine van Leewenhoek discovers the
microscope.
Allows us to see the microscopic world,
including bacteria.
Biotech Time Line
1797
Edward Jenner innoculates a child with
viral vaccine against small pox.
Biotech Time Line
1857
Louis Pasteur proposes microbes cause
fermentation.
Biotech Time Line
1865
An Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel
begins his study of genetics while crossbreeding pea plants
Father of Genetics
Biotech Time Line
1869
Johann Friedrich Miescher isolated and
analyzed DNA as a macromolecule for the
first time.
Biotech Time Line
1917
Karl Erecky first uses the term
biotechnology in a book he publishes in
Germany where he discusses converting
raw materials into more use products.
Biotech Time Line
1943
Penicillin is mass-produced by Andrew
Moyer just in time to help thousands of
injured soldiers
Sir Alexander Fleming is credited with its
discovery in 1928.
Biotech Time Line
1944
Oswald Avery, along with MacLeod and
McCarty, proves that genes and
chromosomes are made of DNA
Biotech Time Line
1953
Watson and Crick publish the structure of
DNA in the journal Nature.
They received the Nobel Prize in Medicine
along with Wilkins and Franklin
Biotech Time Line
1966
Marshall Nirenburg, along with Khorana
and Holley, demonstrated the sequences
of three bases (codons) on DNA determine
each of the 20 amino acids
Nobel prize
Biotech Time Line
1970
Restriction enzymes that cut genetic
material and paste them together was
discovered.
Biotech Time Line
1973
Cohen and Boyer create the first
recombinant DNA technology that allows
scientists to splice DNA from one
organism into another
Biotech Time Line
1975
Kohler and Milstein produce monoclonal
antibodies by fusing the specific antibodyproducing plasma cells with a tumor cell
Made way for a very effective diagnostic
and therapeutic tool
Biotech Time Line
1978
California company, Genetech, is first
company to produce a recombinant drug
(insulin)
Biotech Time Line
1980
Diamond vs Chakrabarty Supreme Court
Case ruled that genetically altered life can
be patented by the one who altered it.
Biotech Time Line
1983
Kary Mullis creates the Polymerase Chain
Reaction as a tool for amplifying, or
copying, DNA in vitro.
Biotech Time Line
1984
Sir Alec Jeffreys develops the tool of DNA
typing, also known as DNA fingerprinting
Major tool used in forensics
Biotech Time Line
1986
First recombinant vaccine for humans was
produced for hepatitis
Biotech Time Line
1997
Ian Wilmut successfully cloned the first
mammal, a sheep named Dolly
Biotech Time Line
1998
First human embryonic stem cell lines
were produced
Biotech Time Line
2003
Human Genome Project was completed.
Started in 1990 with the task of
sequencing every gene in the human cell.
Found the sequence of over 24,000
genes.
Biotech Time Line
2007
Dr. Anthony Atala of WFIRM announces
the discovery of stem cells found in
amniotic fluid
Biotech Time Line
2008
Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative
Medicine is formed to research
regenerative medicine technology that can
be used to treat injured soldiers
Biotech Time Line
2010
First synthetic cell is created by the labs of
Craig Ventor, a major player in the Human
Genome Project
Biotech Time Line
2011
A Federal Court of Appeals upheld the
rights of science companies to hold
patents on genes that they have
sequenced