The following includes select facts from life science history, both global and Georgia state specific,
that help explain the origins of the state's life science industry. Please note that these facts are part of a much larger state-specific
history database that will be launched in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to learn about the scientists behind
the discoveries, the entrepreneurs, philanthropists, political leaders, and significant events, institutions
and companies that are the foundation of the life science industry in the state of Georgia.
If you are aware of a notable event, person, organization/company or accomplishment that we should include,
please e-mail us at: Suggestions@InfoResource.org
1785 -- The University of Georgia was established.
The University of Georgia (UGA) was incorporated
in 1785 by the Georgia General Assembly, making it the first state-chartered university in the
United States. Located in Athens, this land-grant and sea-grant university enrolls approximately
32,000 students and houses fifteen schools and colleges.
The University of Georgia is a major driver of economic and workforce development, catalyzing effective
public/private partnerships that support industry, create start-ups, generate new jobs, and train the
college-educated workforce required for industry development. Research strengths include:
glycobiology, plant sciences, including genomics infectious diseases, including vaccine development and parasitology
biomedical research, including stem cell/regenerative medicine behavioral/social science research.
1836 -- Emory University was founded.
In 1836, Emory University was founded by a group of Methodists
in Newton County that dedicated themselves to founding a new town and college named after an American Methodist bishop
who had inspired them by his broad vision for an American education that would mold character as well as mind.
In 1836, the Georgia legislature granted a charter to Emory College, named for the young Methodist bishop John Emory,
from Maryland, who had died in a carriage accident the previous year. Two years later the College opened its doors,
on September 17, 1838. In 1854, the Atlanta Medical School, precursor to Emory's medical school, was chartered by the city.
In 1914, Asa Candler, the founder of The Coca-Cola Company and brother to former Emory President Warren Candler, who
offered one million dollars and a subsequent gift of seventy-two acres of land to move the college to Atlanta.
Like Asa Candler, Robert Woodruff who succeeded Candler as president of The Coca-Cola Company made significant
financial contribution to Emory University. In 1944, he offered to underwrite the School of Medicine's deficit
through the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation, which he managed with his brother George. The school's deficit sometimes
ran to a quarter-million dollars annually, and Woodruff's gift helped develop a full-time faculty and modernize teaching programs.
Over the years, Woodruff made gifts that enabled construction of many buildings on campus, including the Center for
Rehabilitation Medicine, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, White Hall, Atwood Chemistry Center, and funded
renovations and additions to the Anatomy and Physiology Buildings and Emory University Hospital.
In 1966, thanks largely to Woodruff, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control opened on Clifton Road adjacent to the university,
and the presence of the CDC drew the American Cancer Society to move its headquarters to Atlanta across the street from the CDC.
In 1979, Woodruff and his brother distributed assets of approximately $105 million to Emory
- the largest gift to a university in history at the time. The gift, which included Coca-Cola stock, helped make
Emory's endowment one of the largest of any university in the country. The CDC also made it possible for Emory, in 1990,
to launch its first new school in fifty years, the Rollins School of Public Health. Today, Emory University is home to
nine major academic divisions, numerous centers for advanced study, and a host of prestigious affiliated institutions.
1848 -- American Association for the Advancement of Science was founded.
American Association for the Advancement of Science founded in 1848
marked the emergence of a national scientific community in the United States, and was the first organization
established to promote the development of science and engineering at the national level and to represent the interests of
all its disciplines.
Today, the AAAS serves nearly 300 affiliated societies and academies of science and publishes the
peer-reviewed general science journal Science. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance
science and serve society" through initiatives that include science policy, international programs, science education,
and public understanding of science.
1859 -- Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species."
In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life"
in which he postulated his theory of evolution that explained how the diverse of
species on Earth evolved from a simple, singled-celled ancestor.
Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly
and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability
to adapt to its environment. Darwin's theory of evolution remains the foundation of modern
biology.
1865 -- Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, presented his laws of heredity.
Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian considered the father of modern genetics,
conducted crossbreeding experiments with pea plants between 1856 and 1863. Through this work,
he established many of the rules of heredity.
"In 1859 I obtained a very fertile descendant with large, tasty seeds from a first generation
hybrid. Since in the following year, its progeny retained the desirable characteristics
and were uniform, the variety was cultivated in our vegetable garden, and many plants were
raised every year up to 1865. (Gregor Mendel to Carl Nägeli, April 1867).
1885 -- The Georgia School of Technology was founded.
The Georgia Institute of Technology was
founded in 1885 as the Georgia School of Technology, in an effort to compete with the industrial
revolution occurring in the North. The school opened its doors in 1888 to 84 students.
Today the Institute enrolls over 16,000 students and is best known for its programs in engineering,
computing, and sciences.
Georgia Tech has grown from its origins as a narrowly focused trade school into a institution of advanced
technological and scientific research. It is consistently ranks among the top ten public
universities in the United States.
1887 -- Marine Hospital Service Hygienic Laboratory (National Institutes of Health) was founded.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) traces its roots to 1887,
when a one-room laboratory was created within the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), predecessor agency to the
U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The MHS was established in 1798 to provide for the medical care of
merchant seamen -- charged by Congress with examining passengers on arriving ships for clinical signs of
infectious diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever, to prevent epidemics.
During the 1870s and 1880s, scientists in Europe presented compelling evidence that microscopic organisms
were the causes of several infectious diseases, and MHS officials closely followed these developments.
In 1887, Joseph Kinyoun, a MHS physician trained in the new bacteriological
methods, set up a one-room laboratory in the Marine Hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island,
New York. Kinyoun called this facility a "laboratory of hygiene" in imitation of German facilities, and within
a few months, he identified the cholera bacillus and used his Zeiss microscope to
demonstrate it to his colleagues as confirmation of their clinical diagnoses
(Photo: courtesy of the NIH Almanac).
1918 -- Spanish Influenza Pandemic.
It is estimated that between 25 and 40 million people died
from the the influenza outbreak that began in 1918, swept across America in a week and
around the world in three months. In all, between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans
--civilians and soldiers-- died from the influenza, more than were lost in World War I,
II, and the Korean and Viet Nam wars combined.
On Sept. 18, the residents of Atlanta learned that soldiers of the Second Infantry Replacement Regiment
at nearby Camp Gordon – just a dozen miles from downtown Atlanta – had been placed under quarantine by the
camp commandant after several soldiers fell ill with influenza upon returning from a training session at the
nearby Norcross firing range. By the first days of October, there were over 1,900 cases reported in the camp.
When November arrived the number of new influenza cases in Atlanta continued to decline, but by Thanksgiving,
Atlanta’s influenza cases had begun to surge. Atlanta’s death rate remained elevated through February.
It was not until mid-March that Kennedy could report that the city’s death rate appeared to be returning to
normal and that Atlanta’s second wave of influenza had ended.
According to the figures reported to the Census Bureau, Atlanta lost a total of 829 residents to the
epidemic through the end of February 1919. With a population of just over 200,000, that equates to an epidemic
death rate of approximately 414 per 100,000 people. The average for cities in the South and Midwest combined
was 413 per 100,000, landing Atlanta right in the middle of these cities.
1927 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt organized the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation for polio sufferers.
The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation was
founded in 1927 by future U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) for polio sufferers. Historically, the warm springs were long known by
resident Native Americans whose tribal confrontations often led injured warriors to the water at the base of Pine Mountain for what they
considered its healing properties. In the years that followed European settlement, the warm springs gave rise to a
spa where water emerging at 900 gallons per minute and 88 degrees fahrenheit year-round helped turn the springs into a well-known stagecoach stop.
Influential southern leaders like John C. Calhoun of South Carolina and Henry Clay of Kentucky are known to have visited the therapeutic
baths located about 70 miles southwest of Atlanta before the Civil War.
FDR, a well-known New York politician and aristocrat, arrived at the Inn at Warm Springs on Oct. 3, 1924, three years into his personal
battle with polio. George Foster Peabody, part owner of the Inn and a wealthy banker and personal friend, had written FDR about the substantial
improvement another local polio victim enjoyed while swimming daily in the warm water. After visiting and learning of the therapeutic
nature of the waters at Warm Springs, Roosevelt spent two-thirds of his personal assets to acquire the property in 1926. Roosevelt’s 1932
election as President facilitated fundraising efforts for the Foundation, whose pioneering work to alleviate the debilitating effects
of polio expanded in 1938 when Roosevelt created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, known today as the March of Dimes,
to unify a national effort to eradicate the disease.
In 1964, the Georgia Rehabilitation Center was created to provide vocational rehabilitation for persons with disabilities
throughout the State of Georgia. In 1974, the state assumed operation of the Foundation hospital turning it into a medical rehabilitation
facility that specialized in brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, orthopedic and general rehabilitation services. In 1980,
the separate medical and vocational programs were merged into one comprehensive, state-managed rehab facility. Today, Roosevelt Warm
Springs specializes in long term acute care in addition to both medical and vocational rehabilitation and offers a wide array of
outpatient services.
1933 -- Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his
chromosome theory of heredity.
Thomas Hunt Morgan pioneered the new science of genetics through experimental
research with the fruit fly (Drosophila), laying the foundations for the future of biology. On
the basis of fly-breeding experiments he demonstrated that genes are linked in a series on
chromosomes and that they determine indentifiable, hereditary traits.
1937 -- Robert Winship Memorial Clinic (Winship Cancer Institute) was founded.
In 1937, Robert Winship Memorial Clinic (Winship Cancer Institute)
was founded at Emory University with a gift from Robert Woodruff, the president of Coca-Cola who had lost his mother
to cancer that year. The Clinic was named in honor of Mr. Woodruff's maternal grandfather, Robert Winship.
In 1985, the Clinic was renamed the Winship Cancer Center and was integrated into Emory University Hospital. It also begins
coordinating cancer research and treatment for Emory, Crawford Long and Grady hospitals and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs
Medical Center. In 1999, The Center changes its name to Winship Cancer Institute. In 2002, The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
approves Winship's grant to pursue designation as a comprehensive cancer care center, and the following year the Institute
opened a new, 280,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that houses all original departments plus additional
research and treatment facilities. In 2004, the Institute, in collaboration with Georgia Tech, received a $10 million
NIH grant to study how nanotechnology can help fight prostate cancer. Today, Winship is among the nation's leaders in
seeking out new ways to defeat cancer.
1937 -- The National Cancer Institute was created.
In 1937, the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) was created with sponsorship from every Senator in Congress, and was authorized
to award grants to nonfederal scientists for research on cancer and to fund fellowships at NCI for young
researchers.
Today, the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the federal government's
principal agency for cancer research and training.
1944 -- Public Health Service Act was established.
The 1944 Public Health Service Act defined the shape of medical research in the post-war world.
The entire NIH budget expanded from $8 million in 1947 to more than $1 billion in
1966, now fondly remembered as "the golden years" of NIH expansion. The 1944 PHS Act
authorized NIH to conduct clinical research, and after the war Congress provided funding to
build a research hospital, now called the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center on the
NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Center which opened in 1953 with 540 beds
was designed to bring research laboratories into close proximity with hospital wards in
order to promote productive collaboration between laboratory scientists and clinicians.
The NIH today, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency
for conducting and supporting medical research and is composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, providing
leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.
1946 -- Communicable Disease Center (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) was founded.
Communicable Disease Center (CDC), founded July 1, 1946, came into
being on one floor of a small building in Atlanta, Georgia through the leadership of Dr. Joseph W. Mountin, a
public health visionary. Descended from the wartime agency, Malaria Control in War Areas, the CDC initially focused on fighting
malaria by killing mosquitoes. Among its fewer than 400 employees, the key jobs at CDC originally were entomologists
and engineers; in 1946 it had only seven medical officers on duty. CDC’s first budget was under $10 million. DDT,
available since 1943, was its primary weapon, and the CDC’s early challenges included obtaining enough trucks,
sprayers, and shovels necessary to wage the war on mosquitoes.
In 1947, Emory University gave land on Clifton Road for a headquarters, but construction did not begin for more
than a decade. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 was the impetus for creating CDC’s Epidemiological Intelligence
Service (EIS).Two major health crises in the mid-1950s established CDC’s credibility and ensured its survival.
In 1955, when poliomyelitis appeared in children who had received the recently approved Salk vaccine, the national
inoculation program was stopped. The cases were traced to contaminated vaccine from a laboratory in California.
The problem was corrected, and the inoculation program, at least for first and second graders, was resumed. The
resistance of these 6- and 7-year-olds to polio, compared with that of older children, proved the effectiveness of the
vaccine. Two years later, surveillance was used again to trace the course of a massive influenza epidemic.
From the data gathered in 1957 and subsequent years, the national guidelines for influenza vaccine were developed.
The venereal disease program came to Atlanta in 1957 and with it the first Public Health Advisors, non-science college
graduates destined to play an important role in making CDC’s disease-control programs work. The tuberculosis program
moved in 1960, immunization practices and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in 1961. The Foreign Quarantine Service,
one of the oldest and most prestigious units of PHS, came in 1967. In 1970, the Communicable Disease Center was
renamed the Center for Disease Control.
Today, CDC is one of the 13 major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and
is globally recognized for conducting research and investigations and for its action oriented approach.
CDC applies research and findings to improve people’s daily lives and responds to health emergencies. Working with
states and other partners, CDC provides a system of health surveillance to monitor and prevent disease outbreaks
(including bioterrorism), implement disease prevention strategies, and maintain national health statistics.
CDC also guards against international disease transmission, with personnel stationed in more than 25 foreign countries.
1947 -- Transistor was invented at AT&T's Bell Laboratories.
The transistor, the invention that marked the dawn of the
information age, was invented by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. Bardeen,
Shockley and Brattain were awarded the 1956
Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the transistor effect.
Transistors have become an invisible technology that is
part of almost every electronic device. Every major information age innovation was made
possible by the transistor and its application can be found all around us.
1953 -- Double helix structure of DNA was revealed.
The double helix structure of DNA, the hereditary molecule is revealed by
two scientists, James D. Watson and Francis Crick. This is one of the key
discoveries of the century. Watson and Crick shared the 1962
Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries
concerning the molecular structure of nuclear acids and its significance for information
transfer in living material.
Jack Kilby, an engineer at
Texas Instruments shows only a transistor and other components on a slice of
germanium. This invention (7/16-by-1/16-inches in size), called an integrated
circuit, revolutionized the electronics industry. Kilby was awarded
the 2000 Nobel Prize in
Physics for his invention of the integrated circuit.
(Photo: Jack Kilby courtesy of Texas Instruments)
Jack Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of
microchip technology. He headed teams that built both the first military system and the
first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented both the hand-held
calculator and the thermal printer that was used in portable data terminals.
Mr. Kilby officially retired from TI in 1983, but he maintained a significant involvement
with the company throughout his life.
1961 -- President John F. Kennedy expanded the U.S. Space Program
Listen to President John F. Kennedy's speech in
his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, on May 25, 1961 declared,
"...I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade
is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." This goal was
achieved when astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first human to set foot upon the
Moon at 10:56 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969. Shown in the background are, (left) Vice
President Lyndon Johnson, and (right) Speaker of the House Sam T. Rayburn. The expansion of
the U.S. Space Program resulted in the development of a wide range of technology with
enormous benefit to human and animal kind.
(Photo: courtesy National Aeronautics & Space Administration)
1969 -- Man walked on the moon.
In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, American astronauts, made
history by becoming the first men to walk on the moon.
Listen to Neil Armstrong's first words as he steps onto the lunar
surface (66 kb .wav file). Photo: Courtesy of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration)
An important benefit of the Apollo Lunar Program and
other NASA programs is the ever-growing pipeline of technology that improves human and
veterinary healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics.
1969 -- Victor McKusick published "Mendelian Inheritance in Man".
Victor McKusick, widely acknowledged as the father of medical genetics, spent his career studying
the genetic basis of diseases and disorders with the belief that such an understanding could lead
to new methods of diagnosis and treatment. He studied, identified, and mapped genes responsible for
inherited conditions such as Marfan syndrome and dwarfism (specifically in Amish communities).
In 1969, he proposed the idea of mapping the human genome, over 30 years before the Human
Genome Project was established.
McKusick, a graduate of Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1946), spent his entire career there and founded
the Division of Medical Genetics in 1957, the first research center and clinic of its kind. In
1969 he published the 1st edition of his
book "Mendelian Inheritance of Man",
one of the most comprehensive collections of inherited disease genes. In 2002, McKusick received the
highest scientific honor in the U.S., the National Medal of Science.
1971 -- NASDAQ Stock Market was founded.
NASDAQ Stock Market was founded as the world's first electronic stock market by the
National Association of Securities Dealers. The NASDAQ system, created by the Bunker Ramos
Corp. allowed the financial community, for the first time, to determine which market
offered the best price on a given security.
1971 -- President Nixon declared war on cancer creating the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute.
On Dec. 23, 1971, the National Cancer Act of 1971, enacted by President Richard Nixon as part of the
nation’s war on cancer, established the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute.
The National Cancer Act, "The War on Cancer," gave the NCI unique autonomy at NIH with special budgetary authority.
The annual budget of NCI, called the bypass budget, be submitted directly to the president, bypassing traditional
approval by the NIH or the Department of HHS required of other NIH institutes.
1973 -- Recombinant DNA was perfected.
The modern era of biotechnology begins when Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of
California at San Francisco successfully recombined ends of bacterial DNA after splicing a toad gene in between. They
called their accomplishment recombinant DNA, but the media preferred the term genetic engineering.
(Photo: Courtesy Stanley Cohen)
Boyer and Cohen's achievement was an advancement upon the techniques developed by Paul Berg, in 1972,
for inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA. Cohen's research at Stanford was with plasmids—the nonchromosomal, circular
units of DNA found in, and exchanged by, bacteria, while Boyer's was restriction enzymes produced by bacteria to counter
invasion by bacteriophages.
1974 -- Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was enacted.
John N. Erlenborn, the ranking Republican on the House Committee, was responsible for
bringing the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to a floor vote, and
is one of the ERISA’s "Founding Fathers." Together with Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), Senator
Pete Williams (D-NJ) and Congressman John Dent (D-PA), Erlenborn crafted provisions and
participated in negotiations that were instrumental to the enactment of ERISA which was - and
remains - the single most important legislation governing employee benefit plans in the United
States creating a growing source of new capital.
(Photos: Jacob Javits and Pete Williams courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office).
1975 -- Monoclonal antibodies were produced.
In 1975, Georges Köhler and César Milstein, showed how monoclonal antibodies can be generated by
isolating individual fused myeloma cells.
Genentech was founded by venture
capitalist Robert Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. In the early 1970s, Boyer
and geneticist Stanley Cohen at Stanford University pioneered recombinant DNA technology.
Within a few short years Swanson and Boyer invented a new industry - biotechnology.
In 1980, Genentech issued its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and raised $35 million
with an offering that jumped from $35 a share to a high of $88 after less than an
hour on the market. This event was one of the largest stock run-ups ever, and that
event set the stage for future biotechnolgy industry offerings.
1977 -- First human gene was cloned.
Walter Gilbert induced bacteria to synthesize insulin and interferon, and Frederick Sanger
published the complete sequence of phage FX174. The 1980 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry was
awarded jointly to Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert for "for their contributions concerning
the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids, and to Paul Berg for his fundamental
studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA.
1980 -- U.S. Supreme Court ruled man-made organism patentable.
Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds five-to-four the patentability of
genetically altered organisms, opening the door to greater patent protection for any
modified life forms.
In 1972, Mohan Chakrabarty, a microbiologist, filed a patent
application, assigned to the General Electric Co. for a human-made genetically engineered
bacterium capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil. Because of this
property, which is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria, Chakrabarty's invention
was believed to have significant value for the treatment of oil spills. The application
asserted 36 claims related to Chakrabarty's invention of "a bacterium from the genus
Pseudomonas containing therein at least two stable energy-generating plasmids, each of
said plasmids providing a separate hydrocarbon degradative pathway.
Opinions: Chief Justice Warren Burger delivered the opinion
of the Court, in which justices Potter Stewart, Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, and
John Paul Stevens joined. William Brennan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Byron
White, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis Powell joined.
1980 -- Bayh-Dole Act provided for university technology transfer.
H.R.6933, Public Law: 96-517, December 12, 1980. A bill to amend title
35 of the United States Code. This Act known as the Bayh-Dole Act provided for the legal transfer of research and
technology originating from U.S. universities and federal laboratories to private
companies for commercialization. Technology transfer offices are now common in
universities and federal laboratories and are the technology foundation for numerous
biotechnology and medical device companies. (Photos: Birch Bayh and
Robert Dole courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office)
1983 -- Orphan Drug Act was created.
The Orphan Drug Act
encouraged the research and development of drugs for rare or "orphan" diseases defined as a disease or condition that
affects fewer than 200,000 Americans.
The Orphan Drug Act provided for financial incentives to help companies recover the cost of developing much needed
therapies for small patient populations. The FDA estimates that more than 11 million patients in the U.S. and millions
more around the world, have benefited from this legislation.
1984 -- Alec Jeffreys and technician Vicky Wilson discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting.
In 1984, geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and technician Vicky Wilson at the University of
Leicester in England discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting.
The new technology was first used in 1985 to resolve a disputed immigration case
that confirmed the identity of a British boy whose family was from Ghana.
In 1988, Colin Pitchfork was convicted of murdering two girls in 1983 and 1986 in
Narborough, Leicestershire, England after his DNA samples matched semen samples
taken from the two dead girls. Jeffreys' work in this case convicted the
killer, but also exonerated Richard Buckland, a suspect who otherwise might
have spent his life in prison. In 1994, Jeffreys' was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II for his services to genetics.
1989 -- Georgia Biomedical Partnership founded.
Georgia Biomedical Partnership is a non-profit, membership-based
organization that represents the interests of companies, universities, research institutions, government groups and other
industry associations involved in discovery and application of life sciences products and related services that improve
the health and well-being of people throughout the world.
1990 -- Human Genome Project was established.
The U.S. Human Genome
Project was established -- a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S.
Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The main goals of the
Human Genome Project were to provide a complete and accurate sequence of the 3 billion
DNA base pairs that make up the human genome and to find all of the estimated 20,000 to
25,000 human genes. The project, originally planned to last 15 years, was expected
to be completed by 2003 due to rapid technological advances.
1993 -- Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) was founded.
Biotechnology Industry
Organization is the world's largest organization to serve and represent the
biotechnology industry. BIO's leadership and service-oriented guidance have helped advance
the industry and bring the benefits of biotechnology to people everywhere.
1993 -- Kary B. Mullis was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
PCR allows scientists to quickly replicate small strands of DNA, greatly simplifying
the sequencing and cloning of genes. First presented in 1985, PCR has become one of
the most widespread methods of analyzing DNA. Notably, PCR requires the heat-stable enzyme
Taq (Thermus Aquaticus) which originated from hot springs located in Yellowstone
National Park.
2001 -- Human Genome Project draft sequence was published.
The February 16 issue of Science and February
15 issue of Nature contained the working draft of the human genome
sequence (U.S. Human Genome
Project). Nature papers included initial analysis of the descriptions of the sequence
generated by the publicly sponsored Human Genome Project, while Science publications focused
on the draft sequence reported by the private company, Celera Genomics.
2007 -- The National Institutes of Health established the Human Microbiome Project.
On Dec. 19, 2007, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a $150 million initiative, was established by the National
Institutes of Health with the mission of generating resources that would enable the comprehensive characterization of
the human microbiome and analysis of its role in human health and disease.
The HMP is the collection of all
the microorganisms living in association with the human body, including eukaryotes, archaea, bacteria and viruses.
Bacteria in an average human body number ten times more than human cells, for a total of about 1000 more genes
than are present in the human genome.
Learn about the history of the life science industry in other states:
If you are aware of a notable event or person at your company or organization
that should be included in Georgia Life Science History, please e-mail us
at: suggestions@inforesource.org.
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On Dec. 19, 2007, the 
