Biochemistry History Timeline

1770 – Antoine Lavoisier explains metabolism as combustion, laying the foundation for biochemical energy concepts.

1828 – Friedrich Wöhler synthesizes urea from ammonium cyanate, proving that organic compounds can be made artificially, challenging vitalism.

1833 – Anselme Payen discovers the first enzyme, diastase (amylase), extracted from malt, marking the start of enzymology.

1850s – Louis Pasteur shows fermentation is caused by living organisms (yeasts), supporting the biochemical nature of cellular processes.

1897 – Eduard Buchner demonstrates cell-free fermentation using yeast extracts, proving enzymes can function outside living cells.

1902 – Emil Fischer proposes the “lock and key” model of enzyme action and clarifies the structure of sugars and purines.

1906 – Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins discovers essential dietary factors (vitamins), initiating the field of nutritional biochemistry.

1926 – James B. Sumner crystallizes urease and proves enzymes are proteins, a major milestone in protein chemistry.

1928 – Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin, the first antibiotic, initiating biochemical research on microbial metabolism.

1937 – Hans Krebs describes the citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle), central to cellular respiration and energy metabolism.

1944 – Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty demonstrate that DNA carries genetic information, integrating biochemistry with genetics.

1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick describe the double-helix structure of DNA, based on Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray data.

1958 – George Beadle and Edward Tatum formulate the “one gene–one enzyme” hypothesis, linking genes to biochemical pathways.

1965 – Marshall Nirenberg and colleagues decipher the genetic code, showing how nucleotide sequences specify amino acids.

1972 – Paul Berg pioneers recombinant DNA technology, allowing gene manipulation and founding molecular biotechnology.

1977 – Frederick Sanger develops DNA sequencing techniques, enabling the reading of genetic information.

1983 – Kary Mullis invents the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), revolutionizing molecular biology and diagnostic biochemistry.

2003 – Completion of the Human Genome Project, providing the complete DNA sequence of human genes and accelerating genomic biochemistry.

2012 – Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier develop CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, transforming genetic engineering and molecular biochemistry.

2020s – Advances in metabolomics, proteomics, and synthetic biology expand biochemistry into systems-level understanding and medical applications.