Biotechnology Timeline: Important Events And Discoveries In Biotechnology

1977:

The Age of biotechnology arrives with somatostatin – a human growth hormone-releasing inhibitory factor, the first human protein manufactured in bacteria by Genentech, Inc. A synthetic, recombinant gene was used to clone a protein for the first time.

1978:

Genentech, Inc. and The City of Hope National Medical Center announce the successful laboratory production of human insulin using recombinant DNA technology. Hutchinson and Edgell show it is possible to introduce specific mutations at specific sites in a DNA molecule.

1979:

Sir Walter Bodmer suggests a way of using DNA technology to find gene markers to show up specific genetic diseases and their carriers. John Baxter reports cloning the gene for human growth hormone.

1980:

The prokaryote model, E. coli, is used to produce insulin and other medicine, in human form. Researchers successfully introduce a human gene – one that codes for the protein interferon- into a bacterium. The U.S. patent for gene cloning is awarded to Cohen and Boyer.

1981:

Scientists at Ohio University produce the first transgenic animals by transferring genes from other...