HISTORY OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Suhail Muzaffar
National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road Bangalore 560065, India
Keywords: Biotechnology, Ancient Biotechnology, Classical Genetics, Discovery of DNA, Genetic engineering, Outline of the Chapter
Sl. No. Contents
1 Overview
2 Biotechnology Time Lines
3 Periods of Biotechnology History
3.1. Ancient biotechnology
3.2. Classical biotechnology
3.3. Modern biotechnology
4 References
1. Overview
The term “Biotechnology” was first coined by a Hungarian agricultural engineer Károly Ereky in 1919. His scientific work laid the foundations of this new discipline and therefore he is regarded as “the father of biotechnology”. Biotechnology has been used by humans since the dawn of
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Periods of Biotechnology History
3.1. Ancient biotechnology (Pre- 1800): Early applications and speculation
3.2. Classical biotechnology (1800-1950): Significant advances in the basic understanding of Genetics
3.3. Modern biotechnology (1950 onwards): Discovery of DNA, Recombinant DNA technology, genetically modified organisms, animal cloning and stem cell research
3.1. Ancient biotechnology (Pre 1800)
Most of the discoveries in biotechnology in the ancient period before 1800 were mainly based on the common observations of nature. The discovery of agriculture and the method of storing more viable and productive seeds for agricultural practices was possibly one of the first uses of biotechnology by humans. Ancient humans were hunters and food gatherers but agriculture made it possible for humans to settle at places where farming conditions were the optimum e.g. availability of water, sunlight, and fertile land. Domestication of wild animals was a similar practice which made it possible for humans to quit hunting away from their homes. Domestication of plants started more than 10,000 years ago when humans started using plants and plant products as a reliable source of food. Rice, barley, and wheat were among the first domesticated plants. Selective domestication and breeding of wild animals were the beginning of observation and application of biotechnology principles. Around 250 BC, The Greeks started practicing crop rotation for maximum soil fertility and high agricultural
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This is the phase of biotechnology when people started providing the scientific background to many of the common observations. A Dutch tradesman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632 –1723), while working in his draper’s shop observed minute organisms in the fabric using a simple microscope. His microscopic observations also include the microbes from the plaque between his own teeth and described his observations in a letter to the royal society, “I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The biggest sort. . . had a very strong and swift motion, and shot through the water (or spittle) like a pike does through the water. The second sort oft-times spun round like a top. . . and these were far more in number”. Although Leeuwenhoek did not have a formal education in science, he used to design magnifying lenses and microscopes. Using his microscopes he discovered bacteria, protists, blood cells, sperm cells and many other microscopic organisms (Gest, 2004). He is considered as the first microbiologist and widely known as the Father of Microbiology. His work opened a whole new world of microscopic life to the scientific community. Around the same time, an English natural philosopher Robert Hooke (1635-1703) discovered empty pores in a piece of cork and named them as cells. He designed different
In the late twentieth century, the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering has positioned itself to become one of the great technological revolutions of human history. Yet, things changed when Herber Boyer, a biochemist at the University of California, founded the company Genentech in 1976 to exploit the commercial potential of his research. Since then the field has exploded into a global amalgam of private research firms developing frivolous, profit-hungry products, such as square trees tailor-made for lumber, without any sort of government regulation.
Many people feel that biology has become more advanced than physics. Biology has in fact become the new focus of the future as we tend to use it a lot in our daily lives. The study of Biotechnology is known as the branch of molecular biology that studies the use of microorganisms to perform specific industrial processes. This study shows that our lives can be transformed.
Science and technology are rapidly advancing everyday; in some ways for the better, and in some, for worse. One extremely controversial advance is genetic engineering. As this technology has high potential to do great things, I believe the power genetic engineering is growing out of control. Although society wants to see this concept used to fight disease and illness, enhance people 's lives, and make agriculture more sustainable, there needs to be a point where a line is drawn.
Modern biotechnology was born at the hands of American scientists Herb Boyer and Stain Cohen, when they developed “recombinant deoxyribonucleotide, (rDNA), [1] for medicinal purposes. Subsequently, biotechnologists started genetically engineering agricultural plants using this technology. A single gene responsible for a certain trait, from one organism (usually a bacterium) is selected altered and then ‘spliced” into the DNA of a plant to create an agricultural crop consisting of that...
Wheale, Peter R. and Ruth M. McNally. Genetic Engineering: Catastrophe or Utopia? St. Martin's Press, NY; 1988.
As the building block of life, cells contain inconceivable amounts of genetic information, as well as perform functions any living being needs in order to survive. Since a lot of people tend to struggle with such a complete utterance, Joshua Z. Rappoport develops the scholarly text, The Cell, on,”discovering the microscopic world that determines our health, our consciousness, and our future,”(front cover). Other than this text, many others publish their works in the past on this subject; some of which are Nobel Peace Prize winners. Throughout chapter one, “A Day the World Changed”, Rapporport refers to Robert Hooke who uses a microscope in the 1660s to examine a slice of cork. Overall, “what he saw changed human understanding of the world in a way at least as profound as the first telescopic examination
Although humans have altered the genomes of species for thousands of years through artificial selection and other non-scientific means, the field of genetic engineering as we now know it did not begin until 1944 when DNA was first identified as the carrier of genetic information by Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty (Stem Cell Research). In the following decades two more important discoveries occurred, first the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and next the 1973 discovery by Cohen and Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique which allowed the successful transfer of DNA into another organism. A year later Rudolf Jaenisch created the world’s first transgenic animal by introducing foreign DNA into a mouse embryo, an experiment that would set the stage for modern genetic engineering (Stem Cell Research). The commercialization of genetic engineering began largely in 1976 wh...
Self-motivated Anton van Leeuwenhoek took the initiative to open the door into the mysterious world of science. Curious, Leeuwenhoek taught himself how to make magnifying lenses to see things that could not be seen by the naked eye (Rausch 1). Soon, he focused to the human body. He examined muscle fibers, how blood circulated, and anything else he possibly could (Rausch 2). His researching led him to discover ‘animalcules’, or little animals, whenever he looked at rain, blood, teeth-scrapings - anything and everything he looked at had specified animalcules (Rausch 1). However, the important results of Leeuwenhoek's discoveries did not become relevant until about two centuries later (Rausch 2). Surgeon Joseph Lister learned from Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries and impacted society in an unimaginable way. Joseph Lister took notice as to how all patients that have had
Discoveries in DNA, cell biology, evolution, and biotechnology have been among the major achievements in biology over the past 200 years with accelerated discoveries and insight’s over the last 50 years. Consider the progress we have made in these areas of human knowledge. Present at least three of the discoveries you find to be the most important and describe their significance to society, heath, and the culture of modern life.
The concepts of human enhancement and biotechnology are fairly new terms in the world of ethics and medicine. These words, although far from being unfamiliar, are not often heard in the medical field except in special cases. However, in the past few years, the research and use of biotechnology is on the rise and becoming more prevalent under certain situations. This week’s reading focuses on the issues of biotechnology in a historical and modern context, yet also addresses the pros and cons of such developments.
3. Macer, DRJ. 1990. Shaping Genes: Ethics, Law and Science of Using New Genetic Technology in Medicine and Agriculture. Obtained from the WWW: http://www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/~macer/SG14.html
The field of biotechnology is absolutely huge. There is the medical area and agriculture area of development. The agriculture area concentrates on developing hybrid crops and manipulating genes so that the plants natural defenses activate. Although this is interesting and has an effect on our lives, I have chosen to concentrate on the medical aspect of biotechnology. I have also decided not to comment on the ethics of the new developments, since I believe that the reader should decide for oneself. More specifically, the concentration will be on the Human Genome Project, artificial organs, and companies that are involved in the biotech industry.
Biotechnology helps in protecting the environment,It provides crops with protection from viruses and insects by reducing the number of pesticid...
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a scientist and was best known for his contributions to microbiology; he received the title of "the Father of Microbiology” and dedicated many years of his life to improve the microscope in order to attain incredible heights of precision of the microscopic lenses. He produced magnifications from up to 275X, with a resolving power of up to 1.4 µm. Moreover, he presented his findings from the material of animals and vegetables in extraordinary detail as well as being the first to observe a glimpse of bacteria that he found in water; the first illustration of the bacteria is demonstrated in a representation by Leeuwenhoek in the 1683 “Philosophical Transactions” publication. In this publication, Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society about his observations of the inside of an old man’s mouth. He found "an unbelievably great company of living animalcules [Latin for ‘little animals’], a-swimming more nimbly than any I had ever seen up to this time. The biggest sort... bent their body into curves in going forwards. . . Moreover, the other animalcules were in such enormous numbers, that all the water... seemed to be alive." These were among the first observations on living bacteria ever recorded.
Biotechnology is a group of technologies that work together with living cells and their molecules to prolong life (Keener and Hoban et al., 2014). Today biotechnology can be used in a variety of ways such as in an industrial setting where they use it to create enzymes to synthesize chemicals, in an environmental setting where they use it for waste and pollution prevention and lastly it can be used in medical applications such as in pharmaceuticals, genetic engineering, DNA fingerprinting and in lastly it can be used in stem cell therapy (Keener and Hoban et al., 2014). Everyone in today’s society depends and uses biotechnology in one form or another, biotechnology is essential for our health and wellbeing.