Biotech Chronicles is a brief history of biotech discoveries which continue to influence the field today. We have included essays on genetics and DNA research, profiles of some of the influential individuals who have helped build the biotechnology industry, and an integrated series of time lines which provide an overview of biotechnology from a historical perspective.

Biotech Through the Ages

• Overview and Brief History - biotechnology from a teacher's perspective
• What is Biotechnology? - the meaning of the word "biotechnology" from a historical perspective
• Where Did Biotechnology Begin? - reviews the origins of biotechnology including crop improvement and microbes for health

Time Lines

• 6000 BC - 1700 AD: Early Applications and Speculation
• 1750 - 1900: The Miracle of Life and Death Appears Smaller . . . and Smaller
• 1900 - 1953 - Converging on DNA
• 1953 - 1976: Expanding the Boundaries of DNA Research
• 1977 - 1999: The Dawn of Biotech
  
  

Pioneer Profiles

Paul Berg J. Michael Bishop Herbert Boyer Rosalind Franklin Walter Gilbert William Harvey Arthur Kornberg Barbara McClintock

Gregor Mendel Cesar Milstein Kary B. Mullis Louis Pasteur Linus Pauling Robert Swanson Harold Elliot Varmus James Dewey Watson

Biotech Processes

• Bioprocess Technology - reviews the development of useful products from biological activities
• Biotechnology: Tools for Genetic Ingenuity - Definitions of the tools of biotechnology, and examples of where and how they are used.
• New Microscopy Technique - discussion of Scanning Force Microscopy
• The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses - 1890 discusses creative thinking and imitative study
• The Scientific Method - Elegant Experiments - brief review of the scientific method

Biotech Briefs

• The Beauty of Mutations - errors in the genetic code and what they might mean
• Crossing-over: Genetic Recombination - why no two people look alike
• Dogma, DNA, and Enzymes - reviews that DNA makes RNA makes protein, the central dogma of molecular biology
• DNA Bends to Bind - using scanning force microscopy to study protein synthesis
• How RFLPs Can Help Find a Faulty Gene - the role of restriction enzymes in determining genetic diseases
• Into the Looking Glass - hereditary material is bound on chromosomes
• Monoclonal Antibody Technology - The Basics - concise description of the immune response and the uses of antibody production in treating disease
• Polymerase Chain Reaction - From Simple Ideas - a method for analyzing and characterizing minute amounts of DNA
• Polymerase Chain Reaction - Xeroxing DNA - a bacterium from Yellowstone Park provides a molecule that helps scientists produce millions of copies of DNA in a matter of hours
• Reading the Messages in Genes - brief review of genetic code to protein synthesis
• Recombination Up Close - story of genetic engineering: technology and techniques
• The Search for DNA - review of the key events leading to the structure of the DNA molecule
• Speaking the Language of Recombinant DNA - an analogy between the function of the DNA molecule and the rules of grammar for a language
• The YACs are Here! - yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) enable scientists to borrow the DNA duplication machinery of cells, including human cells

Classic Biotech Stories

• Bacterial Mutations - 1943 Luria and Delbruck hit the jackpot in studying bacteria for viral resistance
• Birds Do It, Bees Do It - 1946 Lederberg and Tatum discover bacterial mating and phage recombinations
• Experiments that Inspire - 1952 Hershey and Chase conduct experiments showing DNA was the hereditary material
• Legacies - Transformation and DNA - 1920 Griffith discovers that bacteria can change from one form to another
• Lwoff's Pathways - Viral Replication - 1950 Lwoff studies viral lysogenic viral replication patterns
• The March of Heredity - 1943 Hammerling searches for the part of the cell directing physical appearances
• Of Mice and Men - 1980 discovery of severe combined immunodeficient mice - mutant mice
• Mutant Gene Predicts Heart Disease - 1994 Japanese researchers identify the gene the encodes for angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)
• The One Gene/One Enzyme Hypothesis - 1941 Beadle and Tatum set out to prove the connection between genes and enzymes
• Rhizobium Meliloti Field Tests - 1994 reports on a test to increase crop production by the addition of extra copies of a nitrogen fixation gene and a gene involved in energy transport
• The Slow Death of Spontaneous Generation (1668-1859) - story of how spontaneous generation was finally laid to rest
• Stories from the Scientists (teacher resources & student activities).
  
• J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid
  
• From Corned Beef to Cloning Stanley N. Cohen, M.D. and Herbert W. Boyer, Ph.D. tell how a late-night talk about the possibility of cloning DNA became a moment of personal discovery and sparked the revolution in DNA technology, from the Winding Your Way Through DNA Symposium
  

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