Health & biology · 1973
Recombinant DNA
Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer spliced foreign genes into bacteria that copied them.
Their 1973 experiment joined DNA from different organisms into a plasmid that E. coli replicated. It created genetic engineering and the biotech industry, starting with Genentech in 1976.
What it built on 1
What it led to 11
- Recombinant insulin 1978
- First transgenic plant 1983
- GLP-1 insulin action 1987
- Gene therapy 1990
- Modified mRNA 2005
- CRISPR bacterial immunity 2007
- CRISPR gene editing 2012
- Heme plant-based meat 2016
- Precision-fermented dairy at parity ~2031
- Cultivated meat at price parity ~2038
- Therapies that slow ageing ~2040
Related measurements
The dashed line marks when it first worked.
Cost to sequence a human genome Latest: 525 $ (2022) Source: Our World in Data