A Timeline of Biotechnology 540
Sept 1, 2009
Part 1. The Early Years of Genetics..lets go back to the beginning
(go to Pt 2)
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| OK, not that far back, unfrozen Caveman Biotechnologist... | 1859 Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species | 1865 Gregor Mendel and his garden peas |
- 1910 Chromosomal theory of inheritance: Thomas Hunt Morgan 1933 Nobel Prize.
1941 One gene, one enzyme: George Beadle and Edward Tatum 1958 Nobel Prize
- 1944 Transposable Elements: Barbara
McClintock 1983
Nobel Prize (at age 81!)
- 1952 The "Waring Blender Experiment": Martha Chase and Alfred Hershey= 1969 Nobel Prize
- 1953 Unraveling the double helix. James Watson and Francis Crick 1962 Nobel Prize, shared with Maurice Wilkins (Rosalind Franklin died 4 years earlier)
- 1967 Cracking the the genetic code. Har Khorana, Robert Holley, and Marshall Nirenberg 1968 Nobel Prize.
Part 2. The Birth of Biotech: The 1970's
(go to Pt 3)
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| 1968 Stanley Cohen | 1970 Herb Boyer | 1972 "From Corned Beef to Cloning" |
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| 1972 Paul Berg 1980 Nobel Prize |
1975 Asilomar
Conference: Pacific Grove CA |
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| 1975 DNA sequencing: Walter Gilbert and Allan Maxam 1980 Nobel Prize | 1975 Cesar Milstein, Georges Kohler and Niels Jeme 1984 Nobel Prize |
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| 1976 Big bucks
for Biotech, Stanford and UCSF Herb Boyer and Robert Swanson |
1978 Human insulin cloned; 1982 Humulin (Lilly) | Oct. 14, 1980; Genentech
IPO 1985 Protropin |
Part 3. Are You Ready for the Revolution? The Early 1990s
(go to Pt 4)
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1986 Polymerase Chain Reaction
(PCR)
1989 The Human Genome Project (HGP)
1990 First use of gene therapy to treat human
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1994 Brave new foods Calgene's
FlavrSavr tomato
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Cloning, crops, chips....
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1996 Announcing
Dolly: First mammal cloned from adult cells:
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Part 4. Speed Matters - Welcome to the Genomics Era: 1998+
(go to Pt 5)
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- 1998 (May) Race for the Genome: Celera Genomics/ J. Craig Venter
- 1998 (September): Google!
- 1998 (October) Human Genome Project on 'Fast Track' for Early Completion:
- 1998 (November): human Embryonic Stem (hES)
cells, Geron Corporation
1999 (September) Shotgun sequencing: of the Drosophila genome - Celera
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14 March 2000: Code Red for Biotech Stocks: President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair |
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26 June 2000 - The Race is Over: President Clinton, Tony Blair, the HGP, and Celera announce the completion of a "working draft" |
Part 5. Biotech and Politics: 01.26.01 -to- 01.20.09
(Objectives)
- 26 January 2001: Inaugural Indecision:
- 15 & 16 February 2001: Genome Issues of Nature (Collins et. al) and Science (Venter).
- 31 July 2001: US House of Representatives Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 (HR2502)
- 10 August 2001: The Bush Decision on Stem Cells:["W"]
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2001+: Cute, cuddly, and cloned:
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2002+: Next Generation Genomes.
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14 April 2003: The Human Genome Project
- fini!
25 April 2003: Happy
Birthday Double Helix!
2004+: Sailing the Genomic Sea (of data)
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 A collection of articles from The J. Craig Venter Institute's Global Ocean Sampling Expedition -Circumnavigating the globe! |
| April 2004: The Sorcerer II Expedition | PLoS Ocean Metagenomics Issue |
Genbank = # of Stars in the Universe= CLICK HERE for graph!
2004+: Ups and downs for stem cells:
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2006+: Very important Stem Cell / Genome Updates of the past year:
- 19 July 2006: Senate Approves a Stem Cell Bill; Veto Is Expected
- 19 July 2006: First Bush Veto Maintains Limits on Stem Cell Use
- 23 August 2006: Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived From Single Blastomeres
- 7 June 2007: Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells
- 13 June 2007: ENCODE Findings Challenge Established Views on Human Genome
- 21 June 2007: Bush Vetoes Measure on Stem Cell Research
2006+: Just a last few pretty genome covers to finish up:
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| The
Honeybee Genome 26 October 2006 |
The
Sea Urchin Genome 10 November 2006 |
The Opossum Genome 10 June 2007 |
The End (for now)
Objectives specific to this lecture focus on Cohen, Boyer, Paul Berg, and Asilomar - the initial succecss (and concerns) of rDNA work - up through the end of Part 2.
1.Identify Nobel-winning scientists and their research stated above. Why? because every self-respecting Biology major SHOULD!
2.Explain how the Cohen-Boyer partnership resulted in 'the birth of biotech' (aka Cloned beef to cloning), the role of Robert Swanson developing the biotechnology company Genentech
3.Explain the major results of the Cohen-Boyer 1974 PNAS paper. We will go over this paper in class Tuesday evening
4. What were the major recommendations of the 1974 paper "Potential Biohadards of Recombinant DNA molecules? What was the outcome of this manuscript?
5. What were the major conclusions from Asilomar conference and what are their significance in the use of recombinant DNA technology? Be able to discuss the the initial concerns and recommendations that surround this important event.
However, in later discussions, we will focus in on more specific objectives for all the rest of the topics: the Human Genome Project, Cloning Animals, Ag-Biotech, Stem Cells and Stem Cell legislation, Cloning Human Cells, etc.
You will want to keep returning to this timeline to help you study for those particular lectures. Do you have to know dates and the 'order' of particular events? NO, but I will give you essay exam questions that will ask you to recall and discuss specifics about the events, given the dates and historical context. More on this later!
(back to top); (back to Biol 540 schedule)
Copyright Kathleen A. Marrs 1998-2007
(1) Nature, January 2003: The Birth of Biotechnology *(from 8/27 readings)
(2) PNAS, May 1974: [PDF] Replication and Transcription of Eukaryotic DNA in E. coli Cohen and Boyer (focus on Intro, Fig 2 and Discussion)
(3) PNAS, July 1974: [PDF]
Potential Biohazards of Recombinant DNA molecules
(4) PNAS, June 1975: [PDF] Summary
Statement on the Asilomar Conference
Optional but interesting:
1. From
Corned Beef to Cloning (don't print out...!!! Short pages
by Cohen and Boyer)
2. Asilomar and Recombinant DNA (particularly the very last section); by Paul Berg