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Jansen and his father Hans were dutch spectacle makers who experimented with lenses and invented a prototype of the microscope. At the time, this invention didn't impact scientific discovery because the magnification was so weak, it mainly brought the new idea to light.
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(technically started in 1750 BC when beer was first brewed)
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He viewed them as empty spaces contained by walls and coined the term "cell."
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He improved the microscope to examine protozoa, which upon his discovery he called “animalcules.” Leeuwenhoek has been known as the father of microbiology for this discovery.
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He inserted a small sample of the vaccine into a child and the boy became immune to the disease. It is said that the vaccine has saved the most lives of out of any human work.
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Jons Jakob Berzelius, a swedish chemist, discovers proteins.
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Through the crossbreeding of plants, Gregor Mendel develops his law of inheritance. He is now known as the father of modern genetics.
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Luther Burbank creates 800 new strands of fruit, vegetables and flowers through plant breeding. His blight-resistant potatoes helped Ireland recover from their potato famine.
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Pasteur invented this vaccination by extracting a sample of spinal column from a rabies infected rabbit and injecting the disease into a boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog.
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Thomas Hunt Morgan discovers genes are on chromosomes. Through studies of breeding fruit flies, Morgan was able to observe the effects of the changing genes on different offspring of flies.
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The word “biotechnology” is used in print for the first time. The term was coined by a Hungarian agricultural engineer Karl Ereky.
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Dr. Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best discover insulin as a treatment for diabetes. This hormone allows the body to use sugar for energy as wells as storing sugar for further use.
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Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. By isolating penicillin from a fungus Fleming shaped the future of medicine in biotechnology.
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Mobile blood transfusion was first introduced on the battlefield of the Spanish Civil War. The invention was created by Dr. Norman Bethune, a graduate of medicine.
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James Watson and Francis Crick mark beginning of the modern era of genetics. Through an article describing their discovery of the helix-structure of DNA, new doors opened for genetics and DNA sequencing.
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The American biochemist Arthur Kornberg and colleagues discover DNA polymerase. This led the the furthering of the understanding as to how DNA is replicated.
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James Till and Ernest McCulloch establish the concept of stem cells. They set the framework by which stem cells are studies today.
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Harris and Watkins successfully combine human and mouse cells. These cells include functioning human chromosomes and genes while combined with parts of the mouse cell.
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Nirenberg, Khorana and Holley determine the genetic code. They identified the specific codons that determine the 20 amino acid units that make all proteins molecules.
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Norman Borlaug becomes the first plant breeder to win the Nobel Prize. His new wheat varieties increased crop yields by 70%.
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Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer develop recombinant DNA technology. This is considered by many to be the birth of modern technology.
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1975 Kohler and Milestein find the concept of cytoplasmic hybridization. They produced the first monoclonal antibodies, which has revolutionized the diagnostics.
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Kary Mullis, an American biochemist, develops the polymerase chain reaction. This discovery dramatically increased the pace of genetic research.
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1986 Maurics Hilleman is recognized for developing over 40 vaccines. These vaccines included measles, mumps, hepatitis A and B, meningitis, pneumonia, and many more.
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The first automated DNA sequencer is invented by Lloyd M. Smith. It enabled the completion of the human genome project many years later.
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An enzyme named Chymosin becomes the first genetically engineered food product. It acts as a substitute for rennet, an extract from the stomach lining of calves.
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Sam Weiss identifies neural stem cells within the adult human brain. This led the way for other scientists around the world to investigate the stimulation of these cells to heal the brain.
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Dolly the sheep is born in Scotland. She was the first cloned mammal.
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The first ever successful transplant of human pancreatic cells in preformed. This eliminated the need for insulin injections for people with severe Type 1 diabetes.
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The Human Genome Project finally comes to an end having achieved all its goals. The human genome sequence is completed.
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One of the 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries grows the billionth biotech acre. People celebrated the symbolic universal acceptance of genetically engineered produce.
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A synthetic bacterial genome that is a copy of an existing genome is created by J. Craig Venter. This genome can be transplanted into a host bacterium to create a “synthetic cell.”
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Access to Million of safe stem cells. Derrick Rancourt and Roman Krawetz develop a bioreactor that programs adults cells into cancer free stem cells. This helps avoid use of embriotic cells for stem cell research.
