Biology in the LaboratoryHistorical Interest in Biotechnology |
What were some major biotechnological achievements of the mid-twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries? |
Numerous (too many to mention here) advancements in biotechnology have been made in the mid-twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries. The following lists only a few of those achievements:
Year |
Achievement |
1968 |
American biochemist Stanley Cohen (1922–) uses plasmids to transfer antibiotic resistance to bacterial cells. |
1970 |
American biochemist Herb Boyer (1936–) discovers that certain bacteria can “restrict” some bacteriophages by producing enzymes (restriction enzymes). |
1972 |
American biochemist Paul Berg (1926–) splices together DNA from the SV 40 virus and E. coli, making recombinant DNA; shares 1980 Nobel Prize with American molecular biologist Walter Gilbert (1932–) and British biochemist Fred Sanger (1918–2013; he has won the Nobel twice, also in 1958). |
1974 |
American biochemist Stanley Cohen (1922–), then research technician Annie Chang, and American biochemist Herb Boyer (1936–) splice frog DNA into E. coli, producing the first recombinant organism. |
1975 |
DNA sequencing developed by American molecular biologist Walter Gilbert (1932–), American molecular geneticist Allan Maxam (1952–), and British biochemist Fred Sanger (1918–2013). |
1978 |
Human insulin cloned in E. coli by a biotech company called Genentech. |
1986 |
America biochemist Kary Banks Mullis (1944–) develops the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in which DNA polymerase can copy a DNA segment many times in a short period of time. |
1989 |
Human Genome Project (HGP) begins; it is complete by 2003. |
1990 |
Researchers at National Institutes of Health (NIH) use gene therapy to treat a human patient. |
1994 |
Introduction of the first transgenic food, the Flavr Savr tomato; it is engineered for a longer shelf life. |
1996 |
Dolly the Finn Dorset lamb—the first mammal—is cloned by English embryologist Ian Wilmut (1944–). |
1997 |
First human artificial chromosome is developed. |
2000 |
Completion of the first working draft (90 percent complete) of the Human Genome Project. |
2003 |
Glofish—a fish that fluoresces and is the first genetically modified pet—are marketed and sold in the U.S. |
2004 |
By now, the rat, mouse, and human genomes are the first mammals to be sequenced— and all have roughly the same number of genes—between 25,000 and 30,000. |
2005 |
The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project publishes its “Map-based sequence of the rice genome,” covering 95 percent of the genome of the world’s most important staple crop. |
2007 |
Human artificial chromosomes were created and patented, and companies appear to use this new technology. |
2008 |
A study suggests that some RNAi drugs work by activating the immune system rather than by silencing genes. |
2010 |
The first synthetic bacterial cell is created. |
2010 |
The Neanderthal Genome Project points to genetic evidence that interbreeding did likely take place between Neanderthals and “modern” humans—and that a small but significant portion of this Neanderthal mix is present in modern non-African populations. |
2011 |
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia lifts a lower-court injunction— thus allowing further research on the controversial use of embryonic stem cells. |
2013 |
Companies develop more “smart drugs”; for example, drug design based on understanding on how genes and proteins work—unlike the past, when many drugs were based on random hit-and-miss experiments with organic molecules. |