History of Biotechnology Midterm Exam #1 Study Guide

Medical Education in the U.S. and Canada

Abraham Flexner's 1910 report called for a more 'scientific' foundation, increased lab research, and stringent admissions standards in U.S. medical schools.

Moore v. Regents of the University of California

1990 California Supreme Court ruling that a hospital patient's discarded blood and tissue samples are not his personal property resulting in Dr. David Golde maintaining his earnings.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Founded in 1950 by Vannevar Bush, envisioning it for health and defense.

Plant Variety Protection Act

1970 legislation allowing farmers to patent and own individual plants and seeds.

Rabies vaccine

First human vaccine in 1885, initially using non-virulent strains before proceeding to increasingly virulent strains. Louis Pasteur vaccinated young boy Joseph Meister.

Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) in U.S.

Established in 1941, coinciding with the rise in consumer culture.

Rubber condom

Invented in 1839, preceding earlier versions developed from linen, intestines, bladders, and leather.

Smallpox vaccine

First publication in 1798, vaccinating a young boy using puss from a woman with cowpox.

U.S. Poliomyelitis Immunization Assistance Act

1955 grants to states for purchase of vaccines.

"Zymotechnology"

Term first used by Georg Stahl in 1697 in his publication Zymotechnia Fundamentals.

Vannevar Bush

Director of OSRD in WWII, wrote Science - The Endless Frontier, envisioning the creation of the NSF.

Alexis Carrel

Developed next-generation tissue cultures, foundation of organ transplants, and wrote The New Cytology.

Casimir Funk

Discovered vitamins in 1912, known for 'The Etiology of the Deficiency Diseases'.

Harriette Chick

Lister Institute researcher who helped prevent scurvy during WWI.

Robert Coghill

Head of Fermentation Division of NRRL in Illinois in the 1940s-1950s.

Carl Djerassi

Joined Syntex in 1949, becoming director in 1960.

George Gey

Treated Henrietta Lacks for aggressive cervical carcinoma.

David Golde

Involved in a 1990 California Supreme Court ruling regarding hospital patient's discarded blood and tissue samples.

A.M. East

Created and cross inbred ('pure') corn lines in the 1920s.

Paul Ehrlich

Fully articulated the antibody/antigen theory by 1900.

Howard Florey

Head of Laboratory of Pathology at Oxford University in 1939 and contributed to penicillin research.

Karl Ereky

Known as 'The Founding Father of Biotechnology', first used the term in 1917.

Alexander Fleming

Accidentally discovered penicillin's properties in 1929.

Funk Brothers

Founded in 1901, oriented in research and based on lines developed by natural selection.

Edward Jenner

Vaccinated a young boy in 1796 using puss from a woman with cowpox.

Benjamin Jesty

Used the same technology as Jenner to protect his family prior to Jenner's smallpox vaccination.

Absalom Jones

Co-founder of Free African Society to recruit African Americans as nurses for the Yellow Fever epidemic. His publication is thought to be the first African American political publication.

Ross Harrison

Known for the first tissue cultures in the 1900s-1910s.

Norman Heatley

British chemist involved in R&D for NRRL and OSRD in the 1940s-1950s.

Christine Jorgensen

Transgender activist in the 1950s-1980s.

Robert Koch

Leader of Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases in the 1890s. Pasteur's rival.

Henrietta Lacks

Her cells were taken without permission and became the basis of the first human cell culture line.

Russell Marker

Determined that Mexican yam had large amounts of a substance convertible into testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone. Founded Syntex in 1944.

Katharine McCormick

Lobbied Congress for legalized birth control with Sanger in the 1920s, and helped fund Pincus' birth control research in 1951.

Bayh-Dole Act

Legislation in 1980 allowing universities receiving federal funding to pursue patents on inventions from the funding.

Biotechnology

Term first used by Karl Ereky in 1917, referring to the use of biology and chemistry to improve the lives of Hungarian peasants around WWI.

Birth control pill

FDA approved for contraception in 1960/1961, developed at Worcester Foundation for Experimental Research, with clinical trials completed in Puerto Rico.

Comstock Act

Legislation in 1872 making distribution of 'obscene, lewd, or lascivious' materials illegal.

Diamond v. Chakrabarty

1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision legitimating patent on genetically-modified bacterium.

Discovery of penicillin's properties

Accidental contamination of Alexander Fleming's plate in 1929 led to mold inhibiting bacterial growth.

Discovery of hormones

Chemist Ernest Starling, in 1905, coined the term 'hormones', sparking the rise of endocrinology in the 1920s.

Discovery of vitamins

All known vitamins identified by the 1940s and fully commercially available by the 1980s.

Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

1938 legislation mandating drug manufacturers to submit evidence of new drugs' safety and effectiveness before marketing and distribution to the public.

In vitro fertilization (IVF)

First birth in 1978 by Robert Edwards and Patric Steptoe in England, used as assisted reproductive technology.

John Moore

Involved in a 1990 California Supreme Court ruling regarding hospital patient's discarded blood and tissue samples.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Suffered from paralysis due to Polio and founded March of Dimes for Polio research.

A.N. Richards

Head of medical research office at OSRD in the 1940s-1950s.

Albert Sabin

Polish immigrant to the U.S., helped develop injectable polio vaccine.

Jonas Salk

Developed attenuated oral polio vaccine in 1963.

Margaret Sanger

Worked with McCormick to lobby Congress for birth control in the 1920s-1950s.

George H. Shull

Created and cross inbred ('pure') corn lines in the 1920s.

John Snow

Located 1854 cholera outbreak to an infected water pump, connecting bacteria to infection.

Ernest Starling

Coined the term 'hormones' in 1905, sparking the rise of endocrinology in the 1920s.

Louis Pasteur

Studied fermentation of beer in the 1860s-1870s.

Benjamin Rush

Co-founder of Free African Society to recruit African Americans as nurses for the Yellow Fever epidemic.

Alsace and Lorraine

Territory subsumed by Germany in 1871 because of the war, with hops as the chief agricultural product.

American Medical Association

Opposed direct federal distribution of newly emerging vaccines in the 1950s.

Cooperative Wheat Research Program

Funded by Rockefeller Foundation to increase yield of wheat in Mexico in 1943.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Focuses on the impacts of pesticides and organisms modified to be pesticide-resistant since 1970.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Regulates biotechnologies consumed, including food and drugs since 1906.

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Established in 1960 by Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation, focusing on disease-resistant rice in South Asia.

March of Dimes

Founded by FDR in 1938 for Polio research with National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

Northern Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL)

Involved in penicillin fermentation and isolation techniques in the 1940s.

Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)

Lead government unit for scientific mobilization during WWII, with a committee in charge of drug research.

World War I (WWI)

Led to the application of Zymotechnology, such as the use of acetone by the U.K. Royal Navy for explosives.

Pure Food and Drug Act

1906 legislation the required truth in food advertisement and regulates interstate trade.

WWII

War from 1939-1945 and U.S entry on December 7, 1941 after attach of Pearl Harbor.

Robert Moses

NYC Urban Planner in early 1900s who built a bridge to Jones Beach that wasn't tall enough for a bus to fit, therefore restricting back and Puerto Rican people from getting there.

Sarah Nelms

Woman who had cowpox that helped with first smallpox vaccine in 1796

Gregory Pincus

American working at Harvard on birth control pill, clinical trials in Puerto Rico to avoid scrutiny in 1950s and 1960s.

FDR

President from 1933 to 1945 who suffered from paralysis due to Polio. Founded March of Dimes for Polio research.

James Phipps

Boy who was vaccinated by Edward Jenner using Sarah Nelm's cowpox in 1796.

Theodore Slavin

His antibodies were used in hepatitis B research after a blood transfusion. Research done by Baruch Blumburg in the 1950s.

Georg Stahl

First used the word Zymotechnology in 1690s.

Eugen Steinach

Studied sex glands of rats, attempted to cure homosexuality with testicle swap, "Steinach operation" was a vasectomy to increase proliferation of sex hormone excretion by destroying sperm-producing cells in testicles in 1890s to 1910s.

WWII Penicillin Collaborative

Combo of NRRL and OSRD, resulted in 85% of profits reinvested into war research, Department of Justice relaxed anti-trust laws, involved Merck, Squibb, Pfizer, Lily, Abbott, and others in 1940s (WWII).

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service regulates transgenic plants founded in 1862.

Acetone

Discovered new fermentation process that produced butanol and acetone before WWII

Adaptive immunity

Immunity that is built up as we are exposed to the disease

Adjuvants

Substances that increase the immune response of a vaccine in a host

Anthrax vaccine (first in non-human animals)

Pasteur's group worked on the vaccine

Antibody-antigen theory (and antibodies and antigens)

Immunity is a result of exposure to build of antibody, antigen is foreign substance in the body and antibody is protein produced to fight it off

Attenuation

Loss of genes or other properties that allow a microbe to infect and/or spread in humans

"Big science" (and "Big biology")

Heavy investment by government on topics that have little profit, involve large-scale infrastructure, often characterized by openness in flow of information and materials

"Beer of revenge"

Germany invades France, Pasteur takes out revenge on German beer

Blood components (plasma/serum)

Plasma is blood fluid, serum is blood fluid after clotting, removal of cells and clotting proteins

Cabeza de negro

Mexican yam used in hormone research

Challenges in 20th-century embryo transfer research

Eggs had to be fertilized at the right stage, culture medium that could support growth and development of oocytes

"Clonal" cell growth

Progenitor cells with the same genetic makeup as the original cell

Cold War

Geopolitical tension between capitalism and communism, characterized by intense economic and technological competition

Co-production

Tools and society affect each other

Corn steep liquor

Remains when starch is extracted from corn, effective medium for fermentation of penicillin

Cowpox

Used as smallpox vaccine

Depletion theory

Immunity to the depletion of an element

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug marketing

Legalized in 1980s, marketing shift to lifestyle

Earliest embryo transfer experiments

Transferred fertilized embryo between rabbit and uterus in the 1890s

Eugenics

Coined by Francis Galton. Means social engineering or selective breeding. Eugenics movement in the U.S. was predominantly in the 1900s-1940s. Largely discredited by the start of the Cold War (1950s-1960s)

Enlightenment

Celebration of reason and observation, use of knowledge to improve human life

Fermentation

Discovered by Pasteur in 1857. Metabolic breakdown of sugars into new products (i.e. alcohol, lactic acid) by microorganisms (bacteria and yeast). Zymotechnology is the study of industrial fermentation.

FlavrSavr Tomato

Vine ripe instead of gas ripe tomatoes, developed in the 1970s-1980s