1865
The Austrian monk Gregor Mendel discovers the
fundamental laws of heredity by conducting systematic hybridization experiments
with bean and pea plants.
1869
The Swiss pathologist Friedrich Miescher isolates DNA
from white blood cells' nuclei. He termed it "nuclein".
1884-88
Oscar Hertwig, Eduard Strasburger, Albrecht von
Kölliker and August Weismann identify independently of each other the cell
nucleus as the origin of heredity.
1902
Theodor Boveri and Walter Sutton propose that
chromosomes bear hereditary factors in accordance with Mendelian laws.
1909
The Danish biologist Wilhelm Johannsen uses the name
"gene" for the first time to characterize the heredity transmission
of a certain feature.
1910
Thomas Hunt Morgan discovers the position of different
genes on the chromosomes for the fruitfly Drosophila.
1944
Oswald T. Avery, Colin M. MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty
prove that DNA is the carrier of hereditary information.
1950
Erwin Chargaff discovers that four building blocks of
DNA, the bases, are aligned in a certain relationship with each other. He thus
creates the prerequisites for working out the DNA double-helix model.
1951
Rosalind Franklin successfully takes the first x-ray
structure pictures of DNA crystals. Her excellent pictures are the basis for
the DNA double-helix model of Watson and Crick.
1953
James Watson and Francis Crick describe the
double-helix structure of DNA.
1965
Heinrich Mathaei and Severo Ochoa decipher the genetic
code: each of the 20 amino acids is defined by three letters of DNA
"bases".
1977
Walter Gilbert, Allan Maxam and Frederick Sanger
develop an effective method for DNA sequencing.
1982
In the
1983
Revolution in molecular biology, Kary Mullins develops
a process to amplify DNA in the laboratory: the Polymerase Chain Reaction
(PCR).
1986
The first gene responsible for a hereditary disease
(amyotrophia) is discovered.
1988
In the US
and in Japan the decision is made to sequence the human genome.
1990
Start
of the public international Human Genome Project (HPG) aiming the deciphering
of the entire human genome untill 2005
1992
Craig
Venter founds the private research institute TIGR („The Institute of Genomic
Research“).
1995
The genome of a bacterium (Haemophilus influenza) is
completely sequenced.
1995
With the German Human Genome Project (DHGP),
1996
The first genome of a complex organism, bakers' yeast,
is sequenced.
1997
The
clone sheep Dolly is born, the first mammalian cloned from the genome of an
adult animal. 2003, it had to be euthanized due to a virus infection.
1998
The genome of the first multiple-cell organism, the
nematode (threadworm) Caenorhabditis elegans, is sequenced.
1998
Pal
Nyren and Mostafa Ronaghi from
1999
The
sequence of chromosome 22 is completed. It is he first human chromosome
sequenced.
2000
Craig Venter and Francis Collins announce the complete
sequence of the human genome.
2000
The
genome of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster is sequenced.
2001
It is now estimated that humans have approximately
30,000 genes. Scientists had expected considerably more genes in human DNA.
2001
HUGO and Craig Venter finish mapping the human genome
sequence.
2001
Founding
of the National Genome Research Network (NGFN) in
2002
The
Genome of the mouse is completely sequenced.
2003
The human genome is considered to be completely
sequenced and the human genome project is officially completed.
2003
Start of the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE)
2005
The genome of the chimpanzee is sequenced. The identicalness with the human genome is about 96 percent.
2008
Start of NGFN-Plus and NGFN-Transfer
2008
Start of the 1000 Genomes Project
2008
“Next-Generation Sequencing “platforms cause dramatic price drop in sequencing costs
2008
The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) is launched; tumors in 50 different cancer types are comprehensively analyzed at its molecular level
2008
Three German projects are joining in the International Cancer Genome Consortium: systematic analysis of childhood brain tumors, prostate cancer and malignant lymphomas
2010
1000 Genomes Project Consortium publishes pilot paper in Nature
2012
ENCODE Project results were published in Nature, Science and other journals, covering more than 4 million regulatory regions in the human genome
