BTE 101 - Lecture 1.1: Introduction to Biotechnology & Biotechnology Timeline

Course Information

  • Course: BTE 101 Introduction to Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
  • Credits: 3
  • Prerequisite: None
  • Summer Semester 2021
  • Faculty: Dr. Munima Haque
  • Faculty code: MHU
  • Contact: ext.munima.haque@bracu.ac.bd

Course Overview

  • Course aims at highlighting key concepts, current understanding, and trends in modern Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering.
  • Course Objectives:
    • Provide an introduction to major concepts, principles, and applications of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
    • Cover fundamental principles of biotechnology and genetic engineering: its history, cell structure and function, and the role of biomolecules, structure, and properties of major biomolecules.
    • Learn about the theoretical and applied concepts of biotechnology and genetic engineering and highlight their various applications in areas of medicine, agriculture, the environment, industry, and society.

What is Biotechnology?

  • Manipulation of living organisms and organic material to serve human needs.
  • Using scientific methods with organisms to produce new products or new forms of organisms.
  • Any technique that uses living organisms or substances from those organisms to make or modify a product, to improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for specific uses.

Examples of Biotechnology

  • Yeast in bread making and alcohol production
  • Use of beneficial bacteria (penicillin) to kill harmful organisms
  • Cloning of plants and animals
  • Artificial insemination

Several Important areas of biotechnology

  • Selective breeding
  • Cloning
  • Genetic engineering

Selective Breeding

  • The process by which people choose which traits they would like to have in the next generation of offspring, then select organisms having those traits to breed.
  • Examples:
    • Fish: Increased protein content, size, and growth rate.
    • Dairy cows: More milk production.
    • Chickens: Large eggs.

Cloning

  • Genetic material is removed from an egg cell and replaced with genetic material from a body cell of another organism.
  • The egg cell then grows into an "exact" copy of the organism being cloned.
  • Example: Dolly the sheep.

Genetic Engineering

  • Directly changing the DNA of an organism by adding or deleting traits (e.g., genes or groups of genes) on the DNA strand.
  • Organisms produced are referred to as GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
  • Examples: Some plants used for food, Glo-fish, and bacteria that can produce human insulin.

Purpose of Biotechnology

  • Produce traditional products in clever new ways.
    • Increase crop productivity, meat, and milk production.
    • Bacteria that produce insulin for treatment of diabetes.
    • Modified bacteria that secrete enzymes to help dissolve oil spills in marine habitats.
  • Produce new products (drugs, protein) that did not exist before.
    • Diagnostic tests to identify genes for inherited diseases: cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease.
    • Forensic assays for DNA and body fluids.
  • Modify genetics to produce organisms with new “recombinant“ traits.
    • Plants with resistance to disease and parasites.
    • Replacing a defective gene in plant, animal, or human.
    • In vitro fertilization, cloning.
    • Preservation of species by freezing gametes or embryos or resurrecting extinct species using cloning techniques.

Areas in Biotechnology

  • GOLD: Bioinformatics, Nanobiotechnology, Health, Medical, Diagnostics
  • WHITE: Industrial Biotechnology
  • PURPLE: Patents, Publications, Inventions
  • DARK BROWN: Bioterrorism, Biowarfare
  • GREEN: Agricultural, Environmental Biotechnology
  • ALOE: Aquaculture, Coastal and Marine Biotech
  • YELLOW: Food Biotechnology, Nutrition Science

Stages of Biotechnology

  • ANCIENT BIOTECHNOLOGY: Related to food and shelter; includes domestication.
  • CLASSICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY: Built on ancient biotechnology; fermentation promoted food production and medicine.
  • MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY: Manipulates genetic information from microorganisms; genetic engineering.

Key Biotechnology Timeline Events

  • 8000-4000 B.C.E.: Humans domesticate crops and livestock.
  • 2000 B.C.E.: Egyptians use yeast to leaven bread and ferment beer.
  • 500 B.C.E.: Chinese use the first antibiotic: Moldy soybean curds for treating boils.
  • 100 C.E.: First insecticide: Powdered chrysanthemums (China).
  • 1665: Robert Hooke invents the compound light microscope, first to observe cells in cork.
  • 1675: Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovers living cells using a simple microscope.
  • 1797: Edward Jenner performs the first vaccination.
  • 1830: Proteins are discovered.
  • 1833: First enzyme is discovered and isolated.
  • 1857: Louis Pasteur proposes that microbes cause fermentation and creates the rabies vaccine.
  • 1859: Charles Darwin publishes the theory of evolution by natural selection.
  • 1865: Gregor Johann Mendel discovers genetics.
  • 1868: The existence of DNA is discovered by Friedrich Miescher.
  • 1902: Walter Sutton discovers Chromosomes.
  • 1910: Thomas Hunt Morgan Discovered how genes are transmitted through chromosomes.
  • 1915: Phages are discovered.
  • 1919: Károly Ereky coins the word “biotechnology”.
  • 1927: Hermann Muller discovers mutations by means of X-ray irradiation.
  • 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
  • 1931: Ernst Ruska invents the electron microscope.
  • 1944: DNA is proven to carry genetic information.
  • 1952: Rosalind Elsie Franklin Research led to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA using radiation and X-rays.
  • 1953: James Watson and Francis Crick discover DNA.
  • 1955: Frederick Sanger discovers the amino acid sequence of insulin.
  • 1958: DNA is made in a test tube for the first time.
  • 1966: The genetic code for DNA is cracked.
  • 1969: An enzyme is synthesized in vitro for the first time.
  • 1970: Restriction enzymes are discovered.
  • 1971: The first complete synthesis of a gene occurs.
  • 1972: Paul Berg develops recombinant DNA technology.
  • 1973: Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer perfect genetic engineering techniques.
  • 1975: Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein develop technology to produce monoclonal antibodies.
  • 1977: Genetic engineering is done for the first time.
  • 1990: Mary-Claire King mapped human genes for research of cancer treatments
  • 1996: Ian Wilmut Created the first true clone, the Finn Dorset lamb Dolly
  • 1994: Genetically modified tomatoes are sold for the first time in the United States.
  • 1996: Sequencing of the baker’s yeast genome is completed.
  • 1998: Human embryonic stem cell lines are established.
  • 2002: Draft version of the complete map of the human genome is published.
  • 2003: The SARS virus is sequenced.
  • 2003: A precise version of the human genome is published.
  • 2004: The first cloned pet — a kitten is delivered to its owner.
  • 2004: Avastin is the first targeted biological therapy of its kind to receive FDA approval
  • 2006: A vaccine against the human papillomavirus receives FDA approval.
  • 2007: Scientists discover how to use human skin cells to create embryonic stem cells.
  • 2008: Japanese scientists create the first DNA molecule made almost entirely of artificial parts.
  • 2009: U.S. Congress increases federal funding for broader embryonic stem cell research.
  • 2010: Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute create the first synthetic cell.
  • 2011: A trachea derived from stem cells is transplanted into a human recipient.
  • 2012: The FDA issues draft guidelines for biosimilar drugs.
  • 2013: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that naturally occurring genes cannot be patented.
  • 2014: Dr Sanjaya Rajaram developed 480 varieties of disease resistant wheat
  • 2015: Discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria
  • 2016: Developed the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato at the CGIAR International Potato Center
  • 2017: Gene therapy
  • 2018: Functional cure of HIV using CRISPR
  • 2019 trends:
    • Physiology-on-a-chip
    • Expanding diversity of CRISPR/Cas genome editing
    • Non-model production hosts
  • 2020 trends:
    • Waiting for sequencing of COVID-19 genome
    • Treatment and taming of COVID-19 using modern biotechnology.
  • 2021 trends:
    • Monoclonal Antibodies and Biosimilars
    • Cell and Gene Therapies
    • Vaccine Development
  • 2022 trends:
    • Personalized medicine
    • Agricultural biotech
    • Faster pharmaceutical testing and approval of medicines
    • Environmental biotechnology
    • Artificial meat