A Timeline of Genetic Engineering

I was searching for information regarding the topic of genetic engineering when I came across an article written on the BBC news website by Dr. Damien Carrington, that was of interest to me. It was written on May 30, 2000, and is called "The History of Genetics." It cought my interest because so far I have only written about genetic engineering and have negleceted to mention any background information on this subject. The Following is a time line of advancements made in genetics:

1869 - The chemical material DNA is discovered in cells.
1909 - The term "gene" is first used and the chemical composition of DNA is found.
1920 - Chromosomes are proposed as the mechanism by which inherited characteristics are passed on.
1944 - DNA is first connected to the inheritance of traits.
1951 - The first sharp X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA are obtained.
1953 - Crick and Watson describe the structure of DNA.
1956 - DNA is made artificially.
1966 - DNA is found to be present not only in chromosomes but also in the mitochondria.
1969 - The first single gene is isolated.
1970 - The first artificial gene is made.
1973 - Genetic engineering begins with the ability to insert genetic material.
1977 - DNA from a virus is fully decoded for the first time.
1976 - An artificial gene is inserted into a bacterium and, for the first time, works normally.
1978 - Bacteria are engineered to produce insulin.
1981 - A gene is transferred from one animal species to another.
1983 - The first artificial chromosome.
1984 - Realisation that some, non-functioning DNA is different in each individual - genetic fingerprinting is born.
1988 - The Human Genome Organisation aims to map the complete sequence of DNA.
1990 - The first human gene experiment takes place to try to treat a four-year-old girl.
1993 - Mice are cured of cystic fibrosis as a result of gene therapy.
1996 - After six years of work, the brewer's yeast genome is decoded, the most complex organism so far.
1998 - The first multi-celled animal has its genome decoded - a worm called C. elegans.

As you can see this list only goes up to 1998, but nevertheless it is astonishing to see the amount of progress that has been made in genetic engineering. The article also mentions in its beginning, a Moravian monk named Gregor Mendel, who is credited with being a "pioneer in the study of inheritance" due to his experiments on pea plants. In analysing seed and plant characteristics, and by following these traits through generations he discovered that some genes are dominant (more likely to show up in the offspring), and some ressesive (less likely to show up in the offspring). This was very impotant to not only genetics involving plants, but other life forms as well. This also is very important to the issue of genetic engineering, due to the fact that from Mendels experiments we may be able to identify which genes in the human form are dominant and resseive, therefore which genes will be passed on to our offspring.

There are many other scientists who can be accreditied to making advancements in the engineering of our genes, but I chose to mention Gregory Mendel as my next blog will be getting into the issue of the ability to change ones genes for heath specific reasons. His research is very important to this because of his discovery of dominant and recessive genes. In order to understand this better in my next blog I will provide a short explanation of how exactly one is to determine what traits their offspring may aquire.