Biotech
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1958
Dr. Aaron Lerner (1920-2007) led a Yale team in the
discovery of melatonin, a hormone from the pineal gland in the brain.
It was later found to regulate human sleep-wake cycles.
(SFC, 2/19/07, p.B4)
1961 M.S. Swaminathan, adviser to
India’s minister of agriculture, invited Norman Borlaug, a plant
geneticist who had improved the yield on Mexican wheat, to visit India.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.29)
1961 Otto Wichterle, Czech
chemist, introduced the world’s 1st soft plastic contact lenses.
(Econ, 3/12/05, TQ p.12)
1963 Mar, Norman Borlaug, plant
breeder, arrived in India and began testing new varieties of Mexican
wheat, whose yields were shown to be 4-5 times better than Indian
varieties. In 1970 he won the Nobel Prize for his development of
high-yield wheat varieties for which he was dubbed father of the "Green
Revolution."
(SFC, 10/15/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/3/02, p.A1)(Econ,
12/24/05, p.30)
1970 Jun 2, Har Gobind Khorana
(1922-1993), Indian-American chemist at the Univ. of Wisconsin,
announced the synthesis of the 1st artificial gene.
(www.super70s.com/Super70s/Timeline/1970/)(www.answers.com/topic/har-gobind-khorana)
1976 Jan, In SF Robert Swanson
(1947-1999), a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, first met with Herb
Boyer, a molecular biologist and co-discoverer of recombinant DNA. The
10 minute appointment extended to a few hours and the 2 men proceeded
to found Genentech. Genentech was founded with $10,000 per month
funding for R&D with Kleiner Perkins as the largest investor.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.B1)(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(SFC,
12/7/99, p.D4)(WSJ, 12/14/99, p.A22)
1978 Sep 6, Genentech of South San
Francisco, Ca., announced the successful laboratory production of human
insulin using recombinant DNA technology.
(www.gene.com/gene/news/press-releases/display.do?method=detail&id=4160)
1980 Jul, UCLA physician Martin J.
Cline inserted recombinant DNA into two patients with the blood disease
thalassemia, one in Israel and one in Italy. In doing so, he violated
the US recombinant DNA guidelines and human subjects regulations.
(http://tinyurl.com/2svhm5)
1983 Jul 25, The first nonhuman
primate, a baboon, was conceived in a lab dish in San Antonio, Tx.
(http://tinyurl.com/34c8hm)
1983 Genetic modification (GM) of
agricultural cereals was invented as a more predictable alternative to
mutation breeding. By this time biotechnology had reached the point
where it was possible to insert genes of interest into A. tumefaciens
and transfer those genes into plants.
(Econ, 12/24/05,
p.30)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_Modified_Organism)
1984 Jun 4, DNA was successfully
cloned from a quagga, an animal extinct since 1883.
(www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2003/jun4.htm)
1994 Rudolph L. Leibel and Jeffrey
M. Friedman announced that they had identified and sequenced the gene
for the hormone leptin, which is produced by fat cells.
(NH, 2/05, p.35)
1991 Medarex, an American biotech
company, went public.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.84)
1999 Jonathan Weiner authored
“Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of
Behavior,” a biography of Caltech biologist Seymour Benzer (1921-2007).
Benzer’s work paved the way for scientists to uncover links between
genes and human behavior.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.C7)
2000 Jun 26, Public and private
gene researchers, Celera Genomics and the National Human Genome
Research Institute, announced at the White House that they had roughly
mapped the human genome. Craig Venter, head of Celera, acquired private
funding in 1998 and began decoding in September 1999. In 2007 Venter
authored “A Life Decoded: My Genome: My Life.”
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 6/27/00, p.A1)(AP,
6/26/01)(WSJ, 10/27/07, p.W6)
2000 Genmab, a biotech company
based in Denmark, went public with Dr. Lisa Drakeman of the US as CEO.
Drakeman, with a doctorate in the history of religion, had gained
biotech experience in Medarex, a firm created by her husband. In 2006
GlaxoSmithKline paid $357 million for a 10% stake in the company.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.84)
2003 Jan 4, Clonaid, the company
that claims to have produced the first human clone, said a second child
was born to a Dutch lesbian Jan 3.
(AP, 1/5/03)(SSFC, 1/5/03,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid)
2004 Aug 23, Researchers presented
results on genetically engineered mice capable of running farther and
longer than those bred naturally.
(SFC, 8/24/04, p.A2)
2006 Sep 17, Elizabeth Blackburn
(57), a biochemist at UCSF, was named winner of the Lasker Award for
Basic Medical Research. She shared $100,000 the award with Carol W.
Greider, a former graduate student, and Jack W. Szostak (53), a Harvard
geneticist and longtime collaborator. Their discoveries included
proteins called telomeres that cap the ends of chromosomes and regulate
the longevity and death of human and animal cells.
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.B1)
2007 May 3, A US federal judge
barred planting of alfalfa engineered by Monsanto to resist Roundup, a
popular weed killer made by Monsanto, pending further study.
(WSJ, 5/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 14, It was reported that
researchers at Tokyo Univ. had developed a method, dubbed surrogate
broodstocking, whereby they inject newly hatched, sterile Asian masu
salmon with sperm-growing cells from rainbow trout. The grown salmon
then produce trout.
(SFC, 9/14/07, p.A14)
2007 Oct 21,
In Brazil activists trying to invade a 304-acre biotech seed
farm, owned by the Swiss firm Syngenta AG, clashed with guards
and at least two people were shot dead.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Nov 14, A US-led team from
Oregon said they had created the world's first cloned embryo from a
monkey, in work that could spur cloning of human cells for use in
medical research.
(AFP, 11/14/07)(WSJ, 11/15/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 16, Belgium researchers
studying the collective behavior of insects said tiny robots programmed
to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society.
Cockroaches tend to self-organize into leaderless groups, seeming to
reach consensus on where to rest together.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan
and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take
on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling
breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo
cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2008 Jan 24, Researchers at the J.
Craig Venter Institute of Rockville, Md., reported that they have built
from scratch a synthetic chromosome containing all the genetic material
needed to produce the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium, the tiniest
bacteria ever found.
(SFC, 1/25/08, p.A1)(Econ, 1/26/08, p.76)
2008 Feb 1, Scientists in Japan
and New Zealand said they have created a "tear-free" onion using
biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us
cry.
(AFP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 5, British scientists
said they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women and
a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day to
produce embryos free of inherited diseases.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 9, The French government
suspended the use of genetically modified corn crops in France while it
awaits EU approval for a full ban.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Jun 17, Hewitt Crane (81),
inventor and bioengineering pioneer, died in Portola Valley, Ca. His
doctorate at Stanford described the neuristor, a hypothetical
electronic device modeled on the neuron.
(SFC, 6/26/08, p.B5)
2008 Jun 29, US researchers
reported that a drug called lodamin, developed using nanotechnology and
a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment, may be broadly effective
against a range of cancers.
(Reuters, 6/30/08)
2008 Aug 19, US scientists said
they have devised a way to grow large quantities of blood in the
laboratory using human embryonic stem cells.
(SFC, 8/20/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 22, Japanese scientists
said they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way
to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using
embryos.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 27, US scientists said
they have transformed ordinary pancreas cells in living mice into a
rarer type of cell that churns out insulin opening possibilities for
future treatment of disease.
(WSJ, 8/28/08, p.D3)
2008 Aug 29, French neurosurgeons
said they had successfully treated brain tumors through ultra-keyhole
surgery, using a tiny fiber-optic laser to destroy cancerous cells.
(AFP, 8/29/08)
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Subject = Biotech
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