Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (1+1)

1.1.4. Historical events related to biotechnology

The Hungarian Karl Ereky coined the word "biotechnology" in 1919 to describe a technology based on converting raw materials into a more useful product. For Ereky, the term "biotechnologie" indicated the process by which raw materials could be biologically upgraded into socially useful products.

• In1920, Leads city council, U.K. established the Institute of Biotechnology.
• During1970s, Biotechnology emerged as a new discipline.
• In 1978, European Federation of Biotechnology was established.

Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and service (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, 1981). The "Scientific and Engineering Principles" refer to microbiology, genetics,

• biochemistry,etc. and "biological agents" mean microorganisms, enzymes, plant and animal cells.
• In 1982, Government of India set up, the National Biotechnology Board and in 1986, it be came a separate department, Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• United Nations proposed for the establishment of International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in 1988. It has 2 centres, New Delhi (India) and Trietse.
• In the 1940s, penicillin was discovered in England and it was produced industrially in the United States using a deep fermentation process. The enormous profits and the public expectations penicillin gave rise to a radical shift in the standing of the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors used the phrase "miracle drug".
• A number of discoveries made during the 1960s and 1970s shed light on how distinct fragments of DNA could be isolated .

• The work of Swiss molecular biologist Werner Arber focused on specialized enzymes that digest, or “restrict,” the DNA of viruses infecting bacteria. These enzymes were subsequently called as “ restriction enzyme s” that could also act like molecular scissors to cut DNA.
• In 1970 American molecular biologist Hamilton Smith and colleagues determined that restriction enzymes could cleave DNA molecules at precise and predictable locations. Hamilton concluded that the enzymes were able to recognize specific nucleotide sequence s. Scientists quickly realized that restriction enzymes could be used in the laboratory to manipulate DNA.
• In 1973 American biochemist Herb Boyer used restriction enzymes to produce a DNA molecule with genetic material from two different sources. This splicing technique is now known as recombinant DNA .
• Boyer inserted foreign genes into plasmid s and observed that the plasmids could replicate to make many copies of the inserted genes. In subsequent experiments, Boyer, American biochemist Stanley Cohen, and other researchers demonstrated that inserting a recombinant DNA molecule into a host bacteria cell would lead to extremely rapid replication and the production of many identical copies of there combinant DNA.
• This process, known as cloning , gave scientists the power to make many copies of desired DNA for molecular study.
• The speed and efficiency of DNA cloning were vastly improved in the 1980s with the invention of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Developed by American biochemist Kary Mullis , PCR enables scientists to produce large amounts of DNA sequence s ina test tube. In a matter of hours, the process can produce millions of clone d DNA molecules.
• In the late 1970s and early 1980s, British biochemist Frederick Sanger and his associates developed DNA sequencing techniques . Sanger’s methods, which used special compounds called dideoxy nucleotides, rapidly yielded the exact nucleotide sequence of a desired sample. With the use of automated equipment, the new techniques transformed genetic sequencing into a speedy, routine laboratory procedure.