Genetic engineering in history

Genetic engineering refers to the process of manipulating genes in humans, animals or plants in order to create an organism with new genetic characteristics, such as crop that is resistant to pests or an animal which resists cancer.

The origins of biotechnology culminated with the birth of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering based on genetics, a science started from the early 1900’s based on experiments by the Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel.

Gregor Mendel

In an 1865 meeting of the Natural Sciences Society of Brno, Mendel presented the first account of his decade-long study of plant hybridization. His paper one of those singular moments in science, made its way into Society’s publication a year later but went completely unnoticed.

In 1944, DNA is identified as the carrier of genetic information by Oswald Avery Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty.

Later two important key events happened. One was the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, by Watson and Crick, and the other was the 1973 discovery by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer of a recombinant DNA technique by which a section of DNA was cut from the plasmid of an E. coli bacterium and transferred into the DNA of another.

Boyer, a professor at University of California, San Francisco was working on enzymes capable of cutting DNA at specific sequences and Cohen who was a faculty member at Stanford was studying the introduction of extrachromosomal antibiotic elements in host bacteria.

During the late 1970’s, researchers used recombinant DNA to engineer bacteria to produce small quantities of insulin and interferon.

One of the key scientific figures that attempted to highlight the promising aspects of genetic engineering was Joshua Lederberg, a Stanford professor and Nobel laureate.

In 1980, green genetic engineering was born. Genetic material is introduced into cell cultures for the first time ever with the aid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

In 1982, The U.S Food and Drug Administration approve the first genetically engineered drug, Genentech’s Humulin, a form of human insulin produced by bacteria.

Fifteen nears later corn and soybeans have been genetically engineered to secret human antibodies for herpes simplex and for the treating cancer patients.

In 1987, the first field tests of genetically engineered crops (tobacco and tomato) are conducted in the United States. Committee of the national Academy of Sciences concluded that transferring genes between species of organisms posed no serious environmental hazards.

In year 2000, International Biosafety Protocol is approved by 130 countries at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada. The protocol agrees upon labeling of genetically engineered crops.
Genetic engineering in history