Historic Highlights

The Pioneers

1886 The Father of Modern Genetics

Gregor Johann Mendel pioneering experiments in hybridization led him to conclude that discrete "factors", now called genes, are responsible for the passing of characteristics to the offspring. In 1866, based on the results of his investigation of the inheritance of "factors" in pea plants, Mendel formulated the first and second laws of heredity.

1953 The Double Helix

With the help of chemist Rosalind Franklin's outstanding images of DNA X-ray diffraction, James Watson, an American geneticist and biophysicist and Francis Crick, a British biophysicist, demonstrated that the DNA molecule is shaped like a double helix. In recognition of their discovery, Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962.

1961 Messenger RNA Isolated

French biologists François Jacob and Jacques Monod, together with the help of French microbiologist André Lwoff, isolated messenger RNA, the molecule that takes information from DNA in the nucleus to the protein-making machinery in the cytoplasm of the cell. In recognition of their groundbreaking work, Jacob, Monod and Lwoff shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1965.

1972 Genetic Engineering Pioneer

American Biochemist Paul Berg devised a method for cutting DNA molecules in specific places that corresponded to a particular sequence of DNA, or gene. This technique is known as recombinant DNA and is the primary method through which genetic engineering is practiced. For his pioneering work, Paul Berg obtained the 1980 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

1990-2000 The Genetic Decoders

In October 1990, an international team of scientists officially began the Human Genome Project. Their mission: mapping the entire human genome to show where genes are in relation to one another along the chromosome, and sequencing the entire human DNA by determining the order of As, Cs, Ts and Gs. The first rough map of the entire human genome was completed on June 26, 2000.