1. A Short History of Biotechnology
   
   
2. The State of the Biotechnology Industry Today
   
   
3. New Money Pours into Biotech Firms.
   
   
4. Major Drug Companies Bet on Partnerships With Smaller Biotech Research Firms

5. From India to Singapore to Russia, Nations Compete Fiercely in Biotech Development
   
   
6. Gene Therapies and Patients’ Genetic Profiles Promise a Personalized Approach to Medicine
   
   
7. New Kinase Inhibitors Are Breakthrough Drugs for Cancer Treatment—Many More Will Follow
   
   
8. Systems Biology May Lead to Faster, More Cost-Effective Drug Development
   
   
9. Pharmaceutical Costs Soars in U.S., Controversy over Drug Prices Rages On
   
   
10. Stem Cells—Controversy in the U.S. Threatens to Leave America Far Behind in the Research Race
    
    
11. Stem Cell Funding Trickles at the Federal Level While California Creates Funding of Its Own
    
    
12. Stem Cells-Therapeutic Cloning Techniques Advance
    
    
13. Stem Cells-A New Era of Regenerative Medicine Looms
    
    
14. Nanotechnology and Information Technologies Converge with Biotech
    
    
15. Agricultural Biotechnology Scores Breakthroughs but Causes Controversy
    
    
16. Breakthrough Drug Delivery Systems Evolve.
    
    
17. Biogenerics are in Limbo in the U.S.
    
    
18. HapMap Project Moves Ahead
    
    
19. BioShield Promises $5.6 Billion to Counter Potential Bioterror Attacks in the U.S.
    
    
20. Ethical Issues Abound
    
    
21. Technology Discussion-Genomics
    
    
22. Technology Discussion-Proteomics
    
    
23. Technology Discussion-Microarrays
    
    
24. Technology Discussion-DNA Chips
    
    
25. Technology Discussion-SNPs ("Snips")
    
    
26. Technology Discussion-Combinatorial Chemistry
    
    
27. Technology Discussion-Vaccines
    
    
28. Technology Discussion-Synthetic Biology
    
    
29. Technology Discussion-Recombinant DNA
    
    
30. Technology Discussion-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
    
    

1) A Short History of Biotechnology

While the 1900s will be remembered by industrial historians as the Information Technology Era and the Physics Era, the 2000s will most likely be marked as the Biotechnology Era because rapid advances in biotechnology will completely revolutionize many aspects of life in coming decades. However, the field of biotechnology can trace its true birth back to the dawn of civilization, when early man discovered the ability to ferment grains to make alcoholic beverages, and learned of the usefulness of cross-pollinating crops in order to create new hybrid strains—the earliest form of genetic engineering. In ancient China, people are thought to have harvested mold from soybean curd to use as an antibiotic as early as 500 B.C.

Cells were first described as a concept by Robert Hooke in 1663 A.D., and in the late 1800s, Gregor Mendel conducted experiments that became the basis of modern theories about heredity. Alexander Fleming discovered the first commercial antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928.

The modern, more common concept of “biotech” could reasonably be said to have its beginnings shortly after World War II. In 1953, scientists James Watson and Francis Crick conceived the “double helix” model of DNA, and thus encouraged a rash of scientists to consider the further implications of human DNA. The Watson/Crick three-dimensional model began to unlock the mysteries of heredity and the methods by which replication of genetic material takes place within cells.

Significant steps toward biotech drugs occurred in the early 1970s. In 1973, Dr. Stanley N. Cohen, a Stanford University genetics professor, and Dr. Herb Boyer, a biochemist, genetic engineer and educator at UC-San Francisco, introduced the concept of gene-splicing and created the first form of recombinant DNA. In 1974, Cesar Milstein and Georges Kohler created monoclonal antibodies, cells that clone over and over again to create large quantities of a specific antibody. Many of today’s top biotech drugs are monoclonal antibodies. These two discoveries (recombinant DNA and monoclonal antibodies) created the building blocks of the first modern commercial biotech drugs.

Boyer and Cohen’s gene-splicing technique enabled scientists to cut genetic material from the cells of one organism and paste it into another organism. This was an important discovery because the genetic material they moved from one place to another instructs a cell as to how to make a particular protein. The organism on the receiving end of the gene-splicing technique is then able to make that protein. Over time, scientists have perfected the technique of splicing material that enables cells to create proteins that control the creation of insulin, the level of blood pressure and many other human functions. Such genetic engineering enabled, for the first time, the creation of massive vats of isolated proteins grown in bacteria or in cells harvested from mammals—in quantities large enough for the commercial production of new drugs. (In fact, Boyer and Cohen’s early experiments involved inserting a gene from an African clawed toad into bacterial DNA for duplication.)

In 1975 the first human gene was isolated, opening the door to gene therapy and creating the emphasis that led to the beginning of the massive, publicly funded Human Genome Project in 1990. In 1976, Bob Swanson of the now-famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins formed a new business, Genentech, in conjunction with Herb Boyer (see above). Other early biotech firms arrived soon after, generally funded by venture capital firms, angel investors and corporate venture partners (the same triumvirate of funding sources that fueled the more recent Internet startup boom). These early biotech startups included many companies that grew into today’s super-successful biopharma corporations: Amgen, Chiron, Biogen and Genzyme. The creation of these startups, focused on the development of new drugs, was particularly noteworthy because it was the first time in decades that new drug companies were launched in significant numbers. In fact, most major drug companies in existence at the beginning of the 1970s could trace their histories back to the early 1900s or before.

For a complete analysis and further discussion of statistics, trends and more:
Purchase Plunkett's Biotech & Genetics Industry Almanac or the eBook (PDF) Version by download.

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