A Historical Timeline: Cracking the Code of Life
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1980
Martin Cline and fellow scientists successfully transfer functional genes from one animal to another, creating the first transgenic mouse.
A human gene, coding for the protein interferon, is successfully introduced into and produced by bacteria.
After genetically engineering a bacterium capable of breaking down crude oil, Ananda Chakrabarty seeks to patent his creation under a provision of patent law providing patents for people who invent or discover any new and useful "manufacture" or "composition of matter." A patent examiner and the Patent Office Board of Appeals reject the patent on the grounds that living things are not patentable. The decision, however, is reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision. The Court rules that while natural laws, physical phenomena, abstract ideas, or newly discovered minerals are not patentable, a live artificially-engineered microorganism is.
1982
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the first recombinant DNA medical product, bacterially produced human insulin.
The National Flow Cytometry Resource (NFCR) is established at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to make state-of-the-art analytical instruments available to biomedical researchers.
1983
Kary Mullis and colleagues of the Cetus Corp., Emeryville, California invent polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This process, which allows the rapid reproduction of small samples of DNA, is applied within most facets of recombinant DNA technology, forensic analysis, and high-speed genome sequencing. Mullis received a 1993 Nobel Prize for his invention.
1984
A conference held by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in Alta, Utah, discusses the possibility of using DNA research to detect tiny genetic mutations in the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs and their descendents. The conference sows the seeds for DOE's involvement in the Human Genome Project.
Francis Collins of the University of Michigan Medical Center devises a technique for "chromosome jumping" that allows researchers to skip over "uninformative" DNA regions and move rapidly up or down a chromosome in search of a particular gene.
"Genetic fingerprinting," the technique of using sequences of DNA for identification, is developed by British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys.
The entire sequence of the HIV-1 genome is determined by Chiron Corp.
1986
The Department of Energy announces its Human Genome Initiative, the genesis of the International Human Genome Project.
The first genetically engineered vaccine, a vaccine for hepatitis B, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
1987
Advanced Genetic Sciences conducts the first field trial of a recombinant organism (a bacterium) on an agricultural product (strawberries).
1988
The National Research Council endorses a national effort to sequence the human genome, and the National Institutes of Health establishes its Office of Human Genome Research, with James Watson as its first director.
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