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8000 BCE
Early Humans
Humans domesticated crops and livestock -
Period: 4000 BCE to 2000 BCE
Food Production
Biotechnology is first used to leaven bread, ferment beer and wine, produce cheese, Babylonian control date palm breeding by selectively pollinating trees -
500 BCE
The first antibiotic
moldy soybean curds used to treat boils (China) -
100
First Insecticide
powdered chrysanthemums (China) -
Period: to
Tools and Cells
The compound microscope is invented in the Netherlands, English physicist Robert Hooke discovers existence of the cell -
Bacteria
Dutch scientist Antoine van Leeuwenhoek discovers bacteria -
Crossbreeding
German botanist Joseph Koelreuter reports successful crossbreeding of crop plants in different species. -
Vaccination
English surgeon Edward Jenner pioneers vaccination by inoculating a child with a viral vaccine to protect him from smallpox -
Period: to
"Every cell arises from a cell"
German scientists Mathias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann propose that all organisms are composed of cells, and German pathologist Rudolf Virchow declares, "every cell arises from a cell" -
Fermentation
French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur proposes microbes cause fermentation -
The Theory of Evolution
Charles Darwin publishes the theory of evolution by natural selection -
Science of Genetics
Austrian monk Gregor Mendel studies garden peas and discovers that genetic traits are passed from parents to offspring in a predictable way - the laws of heredity. Mendel's discoveries were largely ignored until the early 20th century. -
Drosophila melangaster
Fruit flies are used in the early studies of genes. American agronomist and inventor George Washington Carver seeks new industrial uses for agricultural feed stocks. -
Sewage
Bacteria are used to treat sewage for the first time in Manchester, England -
Phages
bacterial viruses are discovered -
Coining a Term
the word biotechnology is first used in print -
Penicillin Discovery
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin, German botanist Friedrich Laibach first uses embryo rescue to obtain hybrids from wide crosses in crop plants - known today as hybridization -
Plant Patent Act
U.S. Congress passes the Plant Patent Act, enabling the products of plant breeding to be patented -
Hybrid Corn
developed by Henry Wallace in the 1920s, is commercialized, eliminates the option of saving seeds -
Bacteriophage
the electron microscope is used to identify and characterize a bacteriophage - a virus that infects bacteria, penicillin is mass-produced in microbes -
DNA
Canadian-born American bacteriologist Oswald Avery and colleagues discover that DNA carries genetic information -
Nature
the scientific journal Nature publishes James Watson and Francis Crick's manuscript describing the double helical structure of DNA, which marks the beginning of the modern era of genetics -
Test Tube DNA
sickle cell anemia is shown to occur due to a change of a single amino acid, DNA is made in a test tube for the first time -
Bacillus thuringiensis
USDA registers the first biopesticide: Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt -
Borlaug
new wheat varieties developed by American agricultural scientist, Norman Borlaug, increase yields by 70% -
Cracked the Code
the genetic code is cracked, demonstrating that a sequence of three nucleotide bases (a codon) determines each of 20 amino acids (two more amino acids have since been discovered) -
Gene Synthesis
the first complete synthesis of a gene is completed -
New DNA
American biochemists Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer perfect techniques to cut and paste DNA and reproduce the new DNA in bactera -
Human Genes in Bacteria
a human gene is expressed in bacteria for the first time, procedures are developed for rapidly sequencing long sections of DNA using electrophoresis -
Exxon
The U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark case Diamond v. Chakrabarty, approves the principle of patenting organisms, which allows the Exxon oil company to patent an oil-eating microorganism -
Golden Clone
scientists at Ohio University produce the first transgenic animals by transferring genes from other animal into mice, a Chinese scientist becomes the first to close a fish - a golden carp -
FDA approval
the first biotech drug is approved by FDA: human insulin produced in genetically modified bacteria -
PCR
American biochemist Kary Mullis invents the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, uses heat and enzymes to make unlimited copies of genes and gene fragments, later becomes a major tool in biotech research and product development worldwide -
DNA fingerprinting
DNA fingerprinting technique (using PCR) is developed, the entire genome of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is cloned and sequenced -
Forensics
genetic fingerprinting is entered as evidence in a courtroom, the NIH approves guidelines performing gene-therapy experiments in humans -
Chy-Max and The Human Genome Project
Chy-Max, an artificially produced form of chymosin enzyme for cheese making, is introduced; the first product of recombinant DNA technology in the U.S. food supply; The Human Genome Project - an international effort to map all the genes in the human body - is launched -
"Not Inherently Dangerous"
American and British scientists unveil a technique for testing embryos in vitro for genetic abnormalities such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia; the FDA declares that transgenic foods are "not inherently dangerous" and do not require special regulation -
FLAVRSAVR
FDA approves the first whole food produced through biotechnology: FLAVRSAVR tomato, first breast-cancer gene is discovered, Pulmozyme, a recombinant version of human DNase, is approved, the drug breaks down protein accumulation in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients -
Dolly
Dolly the sheep is unveiled in Scotland and the first animal cloned from an adult cell, biotech crops are growing commercially on nearly 5 million acres worldwide -
Mapping
a rough draft of the human genome sequence is announced, the first complete map of a plant genome is developed: Arabidopsis thaliana -
GloFish
the first biotech pet, GloFish, hits the North American market, laboratory-rat and chimpanzee genome is sequenced -
Cloned Cow
researchers at the University of Georgia successfully produce a cow cloned from the cells of a carcass, scientists at Harvard University report success in converting skin cells into embryonic stem cells through fusion with existing embryonic stem cells -
Biotech Eucalyptus
Taiwanese researchers develop biotech eucalyptus tree that ingests up to three times more carbon dioxide the conventional varieties, U.S. researchers announce the production of biotech cattle that cannot develop prion proteins (connected to Mad Cow Disease) -
Draft Corn Genome
the draft corn genome sequence is completed, only the third plant genome to be completed
