Learn about the scientists behind the discoveries, entrepreneurs,
political leaders, and significant events, people and institutions that are the foundation
of the biotechnology, medical device, pharmaceutical and life science industries
in the state of California.
Tell us about California's BioHistory. If you are aware of a notable event, person,
organization/company or accomplishment that we should include,
please e-mail: BioHistory@InfoResource.org
1848 -- American Association for the Advancement of Science 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.
From 1831-1836, Darwin served as a naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle -- a British
science expedition around the world. In South America Darwin discovered fossils of extinct animals
that were similar to modern species, and on the Galapagos Islands, located west of Equador,
he noticed many variations of plants and animals of the same general type as those in
South America. Throughout the expedition Darwin studied plants and animals
and collected specimens for further study.
Upon his return to London, Darwin conducted thorough research of his notes and specimens, and
out of his study grew several related theories: evolution did occur; evolutionary
change was gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years; the primary mechanism for
evolution was a process called natural selection; and the millions of species alive
today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called "specialization."
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, presents his laws 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).
MendelWeb:
An educational resource for teachers and students.
When it first opened its doors in 1869, the University of California (UC) had just 10 faculty members
and 38 students. Today, the UC system includes more than 208,000 students and 121,000 faculty and
staff, with more than 1.3 million alumni living and working around the world.
UC has ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego,
San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara and manages three U.S. Department of Energy
national laboratories: the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory, the Livermore laboratory, and Los Alamos
laboratory. UC researchers are pioneers in agriculture, medicine, technology, and the environment, and
thousands of California jobs plus billions of dollars in revenues can be traced back to UC
discoveries. Many of the state’s leading businesses were either based on technology developed
by the university, were founded by faculty or alumni, or are headed by UC graduates.
The University of California's five medical centers support the clinical teaching programs
of UC's medical and health sciences schools and receive more than 120,000 inpatient discharges,
239,000 emergency room visits and more than 3.3 million outpatient visits each year.
The centers provide a full range of health care services in their communities and are
sites for the development and testing of new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.
Collectively, these centers comprise one of the largest health care systems in California
and one of the two largest Medi-Cal providers in the state.
1879 -- University of Southern California founded.
University of Southern California
(USC) was established in 1978 when Judge Robert Maclay Widney formed a board of
trustees and secured a donation of 308 lots of land from three prominent community leaders
— Ozro W. Childs, a Protestant horticulturist; former California governor John G. Downey, an
Irish-Catholic pharmacist and businessman; and Isaias W. Hellman, a German-Jewish banker and
philanthropist. The gift provided land for a campus as well as a source of endowment, the seeds of financial support for the nascent
institution.
In 1885, USC’s College of Medicine, the first in Southern California, was established,
and in 1897 the college began offering courses in dentistry. A century later,
Alfred Mann gave $112.5 million to establish the USC Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical
Engineering, and in 1999, USC’s medical school received a $110 million gift and was renamed the
Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Today, having completed it's "Building on Excellence" campaign, USC set a new record in
higher education by raising $2.85 billion in nine years, and having celebrated its 125th
anniversary, USC is the poised to become one of the leading biomedical research universities
in the nation.
1887 -- Marine Hospital Service Hygienic Laboratory (National Institutes of Health) 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.
The Biologics Control Act enacted in 1902 had major consequences for the Hygienic Laboratory. It charged
the laboratory with regulating the production of vaccines and antitoxins, making it a regulatory agency
four years before passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The danger posed by biological products that had
emerged from bacteriologic discoveries resulted from their production in animals and their administration by
injection. In 1901, thirteen children in St. Louis died after receiving diphtheria antitoxin contaminated
with tetanus spores. This tragedy spurred Congress to pass the Biologics Control Act, and between 1903-1907
standards were established and licenses issued to pharmaceutical firms for making smallpox and rabies vaccines,
diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins, and various other antibacterial antisera. (In 1972, responsibility
for regulation of biologics was transferred to the Food and Drug Administration).
(Photo: courtesy of the NIH Almanac)
In 1912 MHS was reorganized, renamed the Public Health Service (PHS)
and authorized to conduct research into noncontagious diseases and into the pollution of
streams and lakes in the U.S. During World War I, the PHS attended primarily to sanitation of areas
around military bases in the U.S., and when the 1918 influenza pandemic struck Washington, physicians from the
laboratory were pressed into service treating patients in the District of Columbia because so many local
doctors had fallen ill. In 1930, the Ransdell Act changed the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to the National Institute
of Health (NIH) and authorized the establishment of fellowships for research into basic biological and medical
problems. The roots of this act extended to 1918, when chemists who had worked with the Chemical Warfare
Service in World War I sought to establish an institute in the private sector to apply fundamental knowledge
in chemistry to problems of medicine. 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.
During World War II, the NIH focused almost entirely on war-related problems. At the close of the war,
PHS leaders guided through Congress the 1944 Public Health Service Act, which defined the shape of medical
research in the post-war world. Two provisions were especially important: 1) In 1946 the NCI grants program was
expanded to the entire NIH, and the program grew from just over $4 million in 1947, to more than $100 million in
1957, and to $1 billion in 1974. 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.
Accompanying growth in the grants program was the proliferation of new categorical institutes, and from
1946-1949, voluntary health organizations moved Congress to create institutes for research on mental health,
dental diseases, and heart disease. In 1948, language in the National Heart Act made the name of the
umbrella organization the National Institutes of Health. 2) 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.
(Photo: National Archives and Records Administration photograph, courtesy of the Franklin Delano
Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York)
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.
1891 -- Throop University (Caltech) founded.
Throop University (Caltech) was
founded in 1891 by Pasadena philanthropist Amos Throop, and under the guidance of astronomer
George Ellery Hale, the first director of the Mount Wilson Observatory, it was transformed
into a leading institution for engineering and scientific research and education.
By 1921, Hale was joined by chemist Arthur A. Noyes and physicist Robert A. Millikan who
guided the school (renamed the California Institute of Technology) on its current course.
For the next 76 years, Millikan and his successors -- Lee DuBridge, Harold Brown, Marvin
Goldberger, and Thomas Everhart -- led the Institute to preeminence in the
scientific community. During this time programs were added in geology,
biology, aeronautics, astronomy, astrophysics, the social sciences, computer science, and
computation and neural systems.
During the 1930s, Caltech was renowned for its strength in Drosophila genetics, work pioneered
by Thomas Hunt Morgan who came to Caltech in 1928. Morgan's Division of Biology attracted
several scientists who would later become Nobel Prize winners, including George
Beadle (1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) and Max Delbrück (1969 Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine).
Today Caltech, led by David Baltimore, 1975 Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine for his
discovery of the enzyme reverse transcriptase, is one of the leading institutions in the
nation for engineering and scientific research and education.
1891 -- Stanford University founded.
Stanford University was
founded in 1891 on land acquired by former California Governor Leland Stanford, a lawyer,
pioneeer and entrepreneur who was inspired by the Ivy League schools. In addition to land,
the Jane Stanford, Leland's wife who succeeded him after his death in 1893,
provided a $11 million endowment to support the construction of the new university.
The Stanford School of Medicine can trace its history to 1858, when Samuel Elias Cooper
founded the Far West's first medical school in San Francisco. In 1908, tanford Trustees accepted
Cooper Medical College as part of the University, and in 1953 the Trustees made
built a new Stanford Medical Center on the main campus that was dedicated in September 1959.
In 1951, the Stanford Research Park was created in response to the demand for industrial
land near university resources and an emerging electronics industry tied closely to the
prominent electronics department at Stanford. Stanford Research Park is now home to
more than 150 companies in electronics, software, biotechnology, and other advanced technology fields.
A number of top law firms, financial service firms, strategic consultants, and venture capital
companies are also located in the Park. Research and development and
service companies now occupy some 10 million square feet in more than 160 buildings.
Today, Stanford is one of the world's leading institutions in medical education, research, and
patient treatment and care, the center is home of the Stanford School of Medicine, the Stanford
University Hospital, the Stanford University Clinic, and the Lucile Salter Packard Children's
Hospital at Stanford.
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.
Latest Findings:
In September 2004, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a five-year,
$12.5 million grant to five institutions that will collaborate to study
genes constructed from 1918 flu-virus particles salvaged from the bodies of World
War I soldiers and the exhumed Brevig Mission, Alaska resident. The Institutions include
the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.; Mount Sinai School of Medicine,
New York; Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA; the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention; and the University of Washington. The ultimate goal is to use knowledge
gained from the study to develop vaccines, influenza medications and diagnostic tests to
prevent a similar influenza outbreak.
The Scripps Metabolic Clinic, a predecessor of The
Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), was founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps.
TSRI's modern beginnings date to the 1955 establishment of Scripps Clinic and
Research Foundation, when a major portion of the Clinic's limited reserves were
committed to the construction of a new research facility and to the recruitment
of top biomedical scientists. In 1961, Frank Dixon was recruited to La Jolla from Minnesota with four other young
scientists, forming the core of what would later become The Scripps Research Institute.
Today, TSRI, one of the country's largest, private, non-profit research
organizations, stands at the forefront of basic biomedical science, a vital
segment of medical research that seeks to comprehend the most fundamental
processes of life. In just three decades the Institute has established a lengthy
track record of major contributions to the betterment of health and the human
condition.
The Institute has become internationally recognized for its basic research
into immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neurosciences,
autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, virology and synthetic vaccine
development. Particularly significant is the Institute's study of the basic
structure and design of biological molecules; in this arena TSRI is among a
handful of the world's leading centers.
1931 -- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) founded.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) was founded in 1931
by Ernest Orlando Lawrence, winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of
the cyclotron, a circular particle accelerator that opened the door to high-energy physics.
Today the Berkeley Lab, located on a 200 acre site in the hills above the
University of California's Berkeley campus, is the oldest of the U.S. Department of Energy's
National Laboratories. The Lab is managed by the University of California, and has an annual
operating budget of more than $500 million and a staff of more than 3,500 employees, including
more than 500 students.
The Lab is organized into 17 scientific divisions and conducts research
across a wide range of scientific disciplines with key efforts in fundamental studies of the
universe; quantitative biology; nanoscience; new energy systems and environmental solutions;
and the use of integrated computing as a tool for discovery.
1933 -- Thomas Hunt Morgan 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.
Stanford Research Institute, now known as the SRI International
(SRI) was founded in 1946 by the trustees of Stanford University following several decades of cooperation
between members of the Stanford community and local business executives. SRI became independent of the
university in 1970, and changed its name to SRI International in 1977.
Today, SRI is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations.
SRI has been responsible for major advances in networking and communications, robotics, drug discovery and
development, advanced materials, atmospheric research, education research, economic development, national
security, and more. The nonprofit institute performs sponsored research and development for government
agencies, businesses, and foundations. SRI also licenses its technologies, forms strategic alliances,
and creates spin-off companies.
1947 -- Transistor 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.
The
Stanford Research Park, the nation's first high-tech research park, was created in 1951
in response to the demand for industrial land near university resources and an emerging
electronics industry tied closely to the School of Engineering. The first lessee of the
Stanford Research Park was Varian Associates. Stanford graduates and professors have founded
Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and may other advanced-technology
companies.
Today, Stanford Research Park encompasses 700 acres (283 hectares) and is home to more than 150 companies in electronics, software,
biotechnology, and other advanced technology fields. A number of top law firms, financial
service firms, strategic consultants, and venture capital companies are also located in the
Park. Research and development and service companies now occupy some 10 million square feet
in more than 160 buildings.
1952 -- University of California Radiation Laboratory (Livermore) founded.
The University of California Radiation Laboratory, now known as the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(LLNL) was founded in 1952 as part of the UC Berkeley Radiation Laboratory on the
one-square-mile site of a World War II naval air training station. The creation of the
Laboratory was triggered by the detonation of the first Russian atomic bomb in 1949 and fear of
Soviet advances toward a hydrogen bomb. In 1958, after the death of E. O.
Lawrence, the Livermore Lab was renamed Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.
In 1963, the Atomic Energy Commission launched its first biomedical and
environmental research program at Livermore to study the effects of radiation on humans.
Today, Livermore is one of the world's premier scientific centers, where cutting-edge
science and engineering in the interest of national security is used to break new ground
in other areas of national importance, including energy, biomedicine, and environmental
science.
1953 -- Double helix structure of DNA 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.
1954 -- Linus Carl Pauling awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Linus Carl Pauling of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was
awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for
Chemistry for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its
application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances.
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)
1958 -- George Wells Beadle awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The Salk Institute was initially envisioned by Jonas Salk, M.D.,
the developer of the polio vaccine, in 1959, but it was not until 1962 that construction on the
Salk Institute for Biological Studies began.
Today, the Salk Institute conducts its biomedical research in 24 laboratories with a scientific staff of
more than 850. Although not a degree-granting institution, the Salk has trained more than 2,000 scientists, many of
whom have gone on to positions of leadership in other prominent research centers worldwide. Five of the scientists
trained here have won the Nobel Prize. Four of the Institute's current resident faculty members and three nonresident
fellows are Nobel Laureates.
1961 -- President John F. Kennedy expands 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 of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration)
1969 -- Man walks 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 publishes "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.
1969 -- Max Delbrück awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Nasdaq, founded February 8, 1971, is now the largest U.S. electronic stock
market. With approximately 3,300 companies, it lists more companies and, on
average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. NASDAQ is
home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including
technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media,
biotechnology, medical device, and pharmaceutical.
The modern era of biotechnology begins when Stanley Cohen of
Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of
California at San Francisco successfully recombine ends of bacterial DNA after splicing a
toad gene in between. They call their accomplishment recombinant DNA,
but the media prefers using the term genetic engineering. (Photo: Courtesy Stanley Cohen)
1974 -- Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
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 providing an important source of financial investment for the stock market.
(Photos: Jacob Javits and Pete Williams courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office).
1975 -- Monoclonal antibodies produced.
In 1975, Georges Köhler and César Milstein, showed how monoclonal antibodies can be generated by
isolating individual fused myeloma cells.
1976 -- Genentech, founder of the biotechnology industry, established.
In 1976, 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.
Excited by the breakthrough, Swanson called Boyer who agreed to give the young entrepreneur
10 minutes of his time. Swanson's enthusiasm for the technology resulted in a three hour meeting
and at its conclusion, Genentech was born.
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. The event was one of the largest stock run-ups ever, and that event set the stage for
future biotechnolgy industry offerings.
Genentech was initially broadly focused in three areas including food processing,
industrial chemicals, and human health care. In 1982, Eli Lilly & Co. which had acquired
worldwide rights to Genenetch's recombinant human insulin (1978) received FDA approval to
market the product -- the first biotechnology therapeutic to reach the marketplace.
Beginning in 1983, Genentech became solely focused on human therapeutics
and diagnostics, and in 1985, Genentech received approval from FDA to market its first product,
Protropin® (somatrem for injection) growth hormone for children with growth hormone deficiency
— the first recombinant pharmaceutical product to be manufactured and marketed by a
biotechnology company. In 1990, Genentech and Roche Holding Ltd. of Basel, Switzerland completed a
$2.1 billion merger. Today, Genentech is among the world's leading biotech companies with
multiple protein-based products on the market for serious or life-threatening medical
conditions.
1976 -- La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (Burnham Institute) founded.
The Burnham Institute was founded
in 1976 by William (Bill) H. Fishman, M.D., Ph.D., and his wife Lillian Fishman, M.Ed.
as the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (LJCRS) located in San Diego. The Institute
was originally focused on oncodevelopment -- the study of developmental biology in
conjunction with oncology, as a means to better understand the
elusive and deadly nature of cancer.
In 1979, the Institute received a two-year planning grant from the National Cancer
that helped the Institute relocate on five acres donated by the Whittaker Corporation
in Torrey Pines in close proximity to the University of Southern California at
San Diego and the Salk Institute. In 1981, the Institute was designated as a Cancer
Center for Basic Research by the National Cancer Institute.
In 1996, The Burnham Institute was named to honor the generosity of Roberta and
Malin Burnham and their family, and to reflect its broadening scientific foundation.
In 1999, The Del E. Webb Center for Neuroscience and Aging, which focuses on diseases
such as stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, was established, solidifying the expansion
of research. Today, The Burnham Institute continues to evolve as a premier basic
science institute, embodying the vision of its co-founders and contributing to the
health and well being of the world.
In 1978, Hybritech was founded by Ivor Royston and Howard Birndorf becoming San Diego's
first biotechnology company. Hybritech issued its Initial Public Offering in 1981
and raised $12 million, and $33 million in a secondary offering in 1982. The company was
acquired by Eli Lilly in 1986.
Importantly, Hybritech's recruitment of experienced management and scientific talent
became the foundation of numerous other San Diego biotechnology companies, including Gen-Probe,
Genoptix, Gensia, IDEC Pharmaceuticals (Biogen Idec), Immune Response, Ligand, Nanogen,
Neurocrine Biosciences, Viagene (Chiron), and more.
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, 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 provides 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)
California
Technology Transfer Resources -- A comprehensive listing of technology transfer
resources in the state of California, and select national and international resources.
Founded in 1980 with George B. Rathmann as its CEO, Amgen
(Applied Molecular Genetics) pioneered the development of novel and
innovative products based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology.
In 1983, Amgen issued its Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 2,350,000 shares at $18 per share
and raised $40 million leading the way for other biotech IPO's. More than a
decade ago, Amgen introduced two of the first biologically derived human therapeutics
EPOGEN® (Epoetin alfa) and NEUPOGEN® (Filgrastim), which became the biotechnology industry's
first blockbusters.
Today, Amgen is a Fortune 500 company whose business has expanded to serve patients around the
world in supportive cancer care and the treatment of anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, and other
auto-immune diseases such as psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
1981 -- Roger W. Sperry awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.
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 project, originally
planned to last 15 years, was expected to be completed by 2003 due to
rapid technological advances.
Project Goals
Identify all the estimated 80,000 genes in human DNA,
Determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical bases that make up human DNA,
Store this information in databases,
Develop tools for data analysis, and
Address the ethical, legal, and social issues that may arise from the project.
1990 -- BayBio founded.
BayBio, a non-profit 501(c)(3)
organization headquartered in San Francisco, was founded by a consortium of universities,
public officials, educators, and bioscience executives to foster a regional climate
supporting the bioscience industry in Northern California.
1992 -- Rudolph A. Marcus awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
1993 -- Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) 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 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.
1995 -- Edward B. Lewis awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Edward B. Lewis, Caltech graduate (Ph.D. 1942) and former faculty member,
was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
and Eric F. Wieschaus for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of
early embryonic development.
1995 -- Southern California Biomedical Council founded.
Southern California Biomedical Council (SCBC),
was founded with support from Rebuild LA (RLA) under its second president, Linda Griego, and
incorporated in 1995 as a non-profit (c) 6, membership-based, California trade association.
SCBC promotes and supports biomedical and biotechnology research, development, and
anufacturing in the Greater Los Angeles region for economic development and job creation.
1997 -- Paul D. Boyer awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Buck Institute, named for Marin
County philanthropists Leonard and Beryl Buck, opened its research facility in 1999, and was the first
independent institution in the United States to respond to a call from the National Institute of
Medicine to establish ten centers to study aging.
Dr. Leonard Buck was a pathologist at the University of California, San Francisco; Beryl Buck was
trained as a nurse. Prior to her death in 1975, she asked that the Buck estate be used, in part,
"to extend help toward the problems of the aged." The Institute is built on approximately 488 acres of
land on Mt. Burdell in Novato, California, 25 miles north of San Francisco.
The Institute’s first significant scientific finding was reported in Science in 2000, when faculty
members Simon Melov and Gordon Lithgow demonstrated the first successful use of a drug to extend the
lifespan significantly in an animal. The research involved a novel catalytic antioxidant which nearly
doubled the lifespan of the nematode worm C. elegans and supported the role of oxidative stress as a major
determinant of lifespan.
2001 -- Human Genome Project draft sequence 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.
2005 -- The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine established.
In 2005, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
("The Institute" or "CIRM") was
established with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell
Research and Cures Initiative. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in
funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was
approved by California voters on November 2, 2004, and called for the establishment of a
new state agency to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities
and other vital research opportunities.
2005 -- Robert H. Grubbs awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
BP Energy Biosciences Institute established
with $500 million ten year grant to a consortium including researchers at the
QB3 facility at the University of California, Berkeley, the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley Lab in Berkeley, the
Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, and the University of Illinois which will provide agricultural support.
The institute will focus on three key areas of energy bioscience: 1) Developing new biofuel components and improving the
efficiency and flexibility of those currently blended with transport fuels; 2) Devising new technologies to enhance and accelerate
the conversion of organic matter to biofuel molecules, with the aim of increasing the proportion of a crop which can be used to
produce feedstock; and 3) Using modern plant science to develop species that produce a higher yield of energy molecules and can be
grown on land not suitable for food production.
2009 -- Year of Science launched by the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science.
Year of Science
launched by the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) will embark on a celebratory
journey with you to share how science works, what it is like to be a scientist, and why science matters.
In nearly every state, participants in the celebration will demonstrate how we know about our natural world
and why science continues to be so vitally important to our communities, our country, and the world.
Other Resources
Suggested
Science Education Reading -- A list of select biotechnology and other science related books to help you understand the world of biotechnology.
Suggested CEO Reading
-- A list of select books recommended by some of the nation's leading chief
executive officers from the biotechnology, medical technology and related industry.
Tell us about California's BioHistory. If you are aware of a notable event, person,
organization/company or accomplishment that we should include,
please e-mail: BioHistory@InfoResource.org
The 
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.
Founded in 1980 with George B. Rathmann as its CEO, 
The 
