When was biotechnology originated

A History of Biotechnology The gene revolution may be sweeping us along at breathtaking speed but biotechnology is as old as bread and cheese. NI examines the science that began in the kitchen. Ancient technology Biotechnology involves using living organisms in the production of food and medicine. It dates back several thousand years to when people inadvertently discovered the usefulness of one-celled organisms like yeasts and bacteria. The ancient Egyptians, for example, used yeast to brew beer and to bake bread.

Some 7, years ago in Mesopotamia people used bacteria to convert wine into vinegar. And ancient civilizations exploited tiny organisms that live in the earth by rotating crops in the field to increase crop yields. They didn't know why it worked: Theophrastus - an ancient Greek who lived 2, years ago - swore that broad beans left magic in the soil.

It took another 2, years before a French chemist suggested in that some soil organisms might be able to 'fix' atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants could use as fertilizer. Gene wealth People worldwide have long recognized that genetic resources such as plants are linked to economic growth. Since ancient times rulers have sent plant-collectors to gather prized exotic species - in BC Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent a team to the Land of Punt modern Somalia and Ethiopia to gather specimens of plants that produced valuable frankincense.

Likewise in modern times colonial powers mounted huge plant-collecting expeditions across Latin America, Asia and Africa, installing their findings in botanic gardens. These early 'gene banks' helped the colonials establish agricultural monocultures around the globe: a single coffee tree from Arabia planted in the Amsterdam Botanic Garden in originated most of the coffee grown in South America. And the British started growing Chinese tea plants in the foothills of the Himalayas in their first big attempt to establish an economic base using an exotic plant in the colonies.

By the late 19th century, India had displaced China as the main exporter of tea to Britain. Unexpected applications Although baking bread, brewing beer and making cheese have gone on for centuries, the scientific study of the biochemical processes is less than years old. Clues to understanding fermentation emerged in the 17th century when Dutch experimentalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek examined scrapings from his teeth under a microscope and discovered microbes.

Two centuries later the Frenchman Louis Pasteur untangled some of the complex processes that yeast used in fermenting beer. The fermentation process was modified in Germany during World War I, to produce glycerine for making the explosive nitroglycerine.

Similarly military armament programmes discovered new technologies in food and drink industries which helped them win battles in the First World War. For example, they used the bacteria which convert corn or molasses into acetone for making the explosive, cordite. While biotechnology helped kill soldiers, it also cured them and Sir Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin proved highly successful in treating wounded soldiers.

Genetic breakthrough Biotechnology leaped forward when Gregor Mendel announced his belief that there were 'units of heredity' - later called genes - which did not change their identity from generation to generation but only recombined. The science of 'genetics' was born in Derived from the term 'genesis' which relates to the origin of a thing, genetics tried to explain how organisms both resemble their parents and differ from them.

It was believed that every gene corresponded to specific traits directly. The science was used to promote the theory of genetic determinism, whereby life-forms are viewed as machines controlled by genes in linear chains of cause and effect. By the s genetics was helping plant breeders improve their crops. But when applied to people the correspondence between genes and traits led to simplistic interpretations of human behaviour as resulting largely from genetic make-up.

Combined with Darwin's ideas of the survival of the fittest, the new science was used to justify racism and sexism and underpinned notions of racial hygiene which led to the extermination of six million Jews by Nazi Germany. Genetic manipulation has been the primary reason that biology is now seen as the science of the future and biotechnology as one of the leading industries.

History of Biotechnology. What do stone-washed jeans and home pregnancy tests have in common with bread, cheese and wine? Related Is Biotechnology For You?

Make LSC part of your story. Explore Programs. Request Info. Instead of inefficient traditional methods such as extracting them from plants and animals, you could cheaply mass produce your desired molecule in fermentation vats of microbes.

However, to get the revolution going, the technology needed to reach the market. In January , one of the scientists behind the study, Herbert Boyer, received a phone call. Swanson was enthusiastic about the commercial potential of the recombinant bacteria and persuaded the reluctant Boyer to meet up for a few minutes. The meeting ended up lasting for hours, with Swanson convincing Boyer to found a company. Boyer also came up with a name for the company: Genentech, derived from the words genetic engineering technology.

Genentech was founded on April 7th, with no assets, equipment, or even a secretary. Despite these humble beginnings, the company was able to use recombinant E. Two years later, the company used this technique to produce the human hormone insulin , which was a huge breakthrough. Previously, big pharma Eli Lilly had been harvesting animal versions of the hormone from cow and pig pancreases. New technologies have fuelled the biotechnology fire. The last was more sophisticated; it needed the integration of biology, chemistry, engineering and computer science.

Researchers also became more integrated. Many biologists joined the chemists working for big drug companies, and technological needs opened the field up to researchers with skills outside biology.

Such powerful technologies have changed the way biologists do science. Now, researchers no longer have to start their gene search with a hypothesis — with whole genomes at their disposal, they can find a gene by doing a quick database search, and then use those data in a hypothesis-driven manner for some further discovery.

Although the proliferation of big science and genomic data sparked a revolution, firms that depended too much on the human genome have faltered. Celera of Rockville, Maryland, which sequenced a draft of the human genome, has shed jobs in its effort to become a pharmaceutical company. And DoubleTwist of Oakland, California, which hoped to sell a 'superior' annotation of the human genome, went bankrupt last year.

According to Gilbert, stocks in the industry languished last year — but the industry itself did not. So small companies that are 3—5 years old are having trouble raising money at the exaggerated levels that they managed a few years ago. Gilbert says that promising new companies can still raise money — just in smaller amounts. The demand for pharmacogenomics and bioinformatics expertise continues to grow, he says, along with the companies featuring them — much more than the rest of the industry.

Burrill, who sees the industry as cyclical, expects both stock value and job opportunities to rebound within a year or two. Richard Scheller, vice-president of research at Genentech, says that the company is not feeling much of a pinch, as it has a good number of products on the market.

It recently hired ten new staff, and is building a new facility in South San Francisco. But even so, it is not hiring as many people as it did three years ago. Burrill asserts that much of the restructuring in the drug industry has been good for biotech. Merging companies often shed staff, products and preclinical ideas that firms can pick up.