YEAR

DISCOVERY

1865

Genetic inheritance was first discovered by Gregor Mendel.

1868

Nucleic acids were discovered  by  Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher isolated a new compound from the nuclei of white blood cells.

1902

Archibald Garrod discovered inborn errors of metabolism.

1903

Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri independently hypothesizes that chromosomes, which segregate in a Mendelian fashion, are hereditary units.

1905

William Bateson coined the term “Genetics”

1907

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a plant tumor causing bacterium was discovered.

1908

G. H Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg proposed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium model.

1910

Thomas Hunt Morgan showed that Genes reside on chromosomes.

1911

Alfred Sturtevant, one of Morgan’s students, invented the procedure of linkage mapping, based on frequency of recombination.

1913

Alfred Sturtevant makes the first genetic map of a chromosome.

1928

Frederick Griffith showed that genes could be transferred.

1941

George wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum showed that mutations in genes caused errors in specific steps in metabolic pathways. This showed that specific genes code for specific proteins, leading to “one gene, one enzyme” hypothesis.

1944

Oswald Avery, Colin Munro MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty showed that DNA holds the gene’s information.

1952

Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling produced a X-Ray diffraction pattern indicating helical form of DNA.

1952

Plasmids were discovered.

1953

James D. Watson and Francis Crick demonstrated the molecular structure of DNA.

1967

DNA ligases were discovered.

1970

Tumor inducing plasmid (Ti-plasmid) was discovered.

1970

Hamilton Smiths lab discovered Restriction enzymes.

1970

Early 1970

Artificial competence was introduced in Escherichia coli.

Restriction enzymes were discovered and characterized by molecular biologists Werner Arber, Hamilton O. Smith, and Daniel Nathans and received the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

1972

Paul Berg created the first Recombinant DNA molecule, combining DNA from a monkey virus with that of lambda virus.

1972

Walter Fiers and his team at the University of Ghent were the first to determine the sequence of a gene.

1973

Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen made the first genetically modified organism, which was Kanamycin resistance bacteria and survive under the presence of Kanamycin.

1974

1975

Rudolf Jaenisch created a transgenic mouse by introducing foreign DNA into its embryo, making it the world’s first transgenic animal.

Production of monoclonal antibody by hybridoma technology. Hybridoma technology was given by  Georges J.F. Kohler and Cesar Milstein. The term hybridoma was coined by Leonard Herzenberg. They shared nobel prize for this discovery in 1984

1976

First genetic engineering company, Genentech was founded by Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson.

1977

Richard J. Roberts and Phillip Sharp discovered that genes can be split into segments.

1977

Frederick Sanger developed a method for DNA sequencing.

1978

Genentech announced the production of genetically engineered Human Insulin.

Late 1980s

Transformation using Electroporation was developed.

1982

First genetically modified crop, an antibiotic resistant tobacco plant was produced.

1982

Humulin, insulin produced by bacteria was approved for release by the Food and Drug Administration.

1983

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was developed by Kary Mullis.

1983

First genetically engineered plant was developed by Michael W. Bevan, Richard B. Flavell and Mary-Dell Chilton. Infected tobacco with Agrobacterium transformed with an antibiotic resistance gene and cultured through tissue culture technique.

1984

Genetically modified mice were created that carried cloned oncogenes.

1985

First transgenic livestock were produced.

1987

First animal to synthesise transgenic proteins in their milk were created i.e., mice, engineered to produce human tissue plasminogen activator.

1987

Ice-minus strain of Pseudomonas syringae became the first genetically modified organism to be released into the environment.

1987

Gene gun was invented, allowing transformation of plants not susceptible to Agrobacterium infection.

1987

Plant genetic systems was the first company to genetically engineer insect-resistant plants by incorporating genes that produced insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into Tobacco.

1988

First human antibodies were produced in plants.

1989

Mice with genes knocked out (knockout mouse) were created.

1992

China became the first country to commercialize transgenic plants, introducing a virus resistant tobacco.

1993

MicroRNA was discovered.

1994

Calgene attained the approval to commercialize Flavr Savr Tomato, the first genetically modified food.

1994

European union approved herbicide resistant Tobacco, making it the first commercialized genetically engineered crop in Europe.

1995

1996

US approved the release of an insect resistant potato (Bt-potato).

Dolly was first cloned animal(female mammal) and cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics. 

1998

Tissue engineered cartilage developed by Aigner et al.

1998

Human embryonic stem cells cultured, by Thomson et al.

2000

Vitamin A- enriched Golden rice is produced.

2000

“Rough draft” of Human genome finished.

2007

Adult cells are reprogrammed to become pleuripotent stem (iPS) cells by, Yu et al.

2008

Genetically modified seeds were produced in Arabidopsis thaliana, by simply dipping the flowers in an Agrobacterium solution.

2010

First synthetic bacterial genome was created at the J. Craig Venter Institute, and named it Synthia and it was the first synthetic life form.

2014

A bacterium was developed that replicated a plasmid containing unnatural base pairs.

2015

AquAdvantage Salmon, the first genetically modified animal to be approved for food.

2015

CRISPR and TALENs was used to modify plant genomes.

2018

“Skin cells” are converted into “stem cells” by use of CRISPR.

2018

Researchers at Stanford University indicated that the genetic engineering method, CRISPR may trigger an immune response in humans, making it potentially ineffective.

2018

FDA approved immunotherapy as fourth cancer therapy.

2018

Two Monkey clones “Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua” were developed in China using complex DNA transfer method.

2018

Chinese Scientist Claims to Use CRISPR technology  to Make First Genetically Edited Babies