Molecular Biology History Timeline

1869 - 2020 23 events
biochemistry

DNA Isolated by Miescher

1869
Friedrich Miescher isolates “nuclein” (DNA) from leucocytes in pus-soaked bandages
phosphate

Nucleotide Components Identified

1919
Phoebus Levene describes sugar
MacLeod

DNA as Genetic Material Demonstrated

1944
Avery
genetics

Chargaff’s Rules Established

1950
Erwin Chargaff discovers that DNA base composition varies between species and base pairs are equal
molecular biology

Double Helix Structure Proposed

1953
Watson and Crick build DNA model revealing antiparallel double helix held by base pairing
molecular biology

Central Dogma Formulated

1957
Francis Crick articulates information flow from DNA to RNA to protein
molecular biology

Semi-Conservative DNA Replication Confirmed

1958
Meselson and Stahl use isotope labeling to confirm semi-conservative replication mechanism of DNA
genetics

Genetic Code First Deciphered

1961
Nirenberg and Matthaei decipher the first codon (UUU) coding for phenylalanine
Nirenberg

Complete Genetic Code Published

1966
Khorana
enzymology

Type II Restriction Enzymes Discovered

1970
Smith and Nathans identify enzymes that cut DNA at specific sequences enabling molecular cloning
genetic engineering

Recombinant DNA First Created

1972
Paul Berg fuses DNA from SV40 virus with lambda phage DNA to form first recombinant molecules
genetic engineering

First Gene Cloned

1973
Cohen and Boyer insert foreign DNA into E. coli plasmids to clone genes
Multiple Events

2 Events in 1977

1977
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Staehelin

Western Blot Technique Developed

1979
Towbin
molecular biology

Polymerase Chain Reaction Invented

1983
Kary Mullis develops PCR enabling exponential amplification of specific DNA segments
genomics

Human Genome Project Launched

1990
International consortium starts large-scale sequencing of the human genome
RNA biology

RNA Interference Phenomenon Discovered

1998
Fire and Mello demonstrate gene silencing via double-stranded RNA in C. elegans
transcriptomics

RNA-Seq Technique Introduced

2008
Hughes and colleagues develop high-throughput sequencing for transcriptome profiling
genetic engineering

CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Demonstrated

2012
Charpentier and Doudna repurpose bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 system for targeted DNA cleavage in eukaryotic cells
transcriptomics

Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Developed

2013
Zheng and colleagues advance microfluidic methods for transcriptome analysis at single-cell resolution
Badran

Base Editing Technology Created

2015
Komor
biotechnology

mRNA Vaccine Platform Validated

2020
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna demonstrate mRNA vaccines’ efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 illustrating synthetic mRNA applications
1869 1919 1944 1950 1953 1957 1958 1961 1966 1970 1972 1973 1977 1979 1983 1990 1998 2008 2012 2013 2015 2020

  • 1869 – Friedrich Miescher isolates “nuclein” (DNA) from white blood cells, marking the first identification of DNA.

  • 1919 – Phoebus Levene identifies the basic components of nucleotides: sugar, phosphate, and nitrogenous base.

  • 1944 – Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty demonstrate that DNA is the hereditary material in cells.

  • 1950 – Erwin Chargaff formulates Chargaff’s rules, showing that adenine equals thymine and guanine equals cytosine in DNA.

  • 1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick propose the double-helix structure of DNA based on X-ray data from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.

  • 1957 – Francis Crick introduces the central dogma of molecular biology: DNA → RNA → protein.

  • 1958 – Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl confirm the semi-conservative model of DNA replication using isotope labeling.

  • 1961 – Marshall Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei decipher the first triplet codon (UUU) coding for phenylalanine.

  • 1966 – The full genetic code is completed, assigning codons to all 20 amino acids.

  • 1970 – Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans discover type II restriction enzymes, enabling specific DNA cutting.

  • 1972 – Paul Berg creates the first recombinant DNA molecules by combining viral and bacterial DNA.

  • 1973 – Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer perform the first successful gene cloning in bacteria.

  • 1977 – Frederick Sanger develops the dideoxy method for DNA sequencing (Sanger sequencing).

  • 1977 – Northern blotting is developed to detect specific RNA sequences in samples.

  • 1979 – Western blotting is introduced for detecting specific proteins using antibodies.

  • 1983 – Kary Mullis invents the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify specific DNA sequences.

  • 1990 – The Human Genome Project begins to map the entire human DNA sequence.

  • 1998 – Andrew Fire and Craig Mello discover RNA interference (RNAi), a method of gene silencing using double-stranded RNA.

  • 2008 – RNA-Seq emerges as a method for sequencing RNA to analyze gene expression at high throughput.

  • 2012 – Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna demonstrate CRISPR-Cas9 for precise genome editing.

  • 2013 – Single-cell RNA sequencing is developed to study gene expression at the resolution of individual cells.

  • 2015 – CRISPR-based base editors are introduced to make precise nucleotide changes without double-strand breaks.

  • 2020 – mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) validate synthetic mRNA as a platform for rapid vaccine development.

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