1859
Charles Darwin
- The first printing of Charles Darwin's book - On the Origin of species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Presentation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for life.

1865
Gregor Mendel
- His experiment with peas showed that heredity is transmitted in discrete units.

1869
Friedrich Mieshir
- First isolation of DNA

1879
Walter Flemming
- The whole process of mitosis of animal cell was described, including chromosone doubling to their even partitioning into the two resulting cells.

1900
Hugo DeVries, Carl Correns and Erich von Tschennak
- independently rediscover Mendel's work

1902
Walter Sutton
- The process of meiosis was observed.
Discovering that the segregation pattern of chromosomes during meiosis matched the segregation patterns of Mendel's genes.

1909
Wilhelm Johannsen
- Coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity

1911
Thomes Hunt Morgan
- Using fruit flies as model organism showed that genes, strung on chromosome, are the units of heredity.

1941
George Beadle & Edward Tatum
- Setting up "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis

1943
William Astbury
- Obtained the first X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA

1944
Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty
- showed that DNA can transform the properties of cells, clarifying the chemical nature of genes.

Barbara McClintock
- discovered that genes can jump around on chromosomes.

1952
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase
- Found that only the DNA of a virus is need to enter a bacterium for infection.

1953
Francis Crick & James Watson
- described the double helix structure of DNA.

1955
Joe Hin Tjio
- defined 46 as the exact number of human chromosomes

Arthur Kornberg
- isolated DNA polymerase

1958
Matthew - Meselson & Franklin Stahl
- demonstrated that DNA replicates semiconservatively

1961
Sydney Brenner, Francis Jacob & Matthew Meselson
- discovered that mRNA is the molecular taking information from DNA in the nucleus to the protein - making machinery in the cytoplasm.

1966
Marshall Nirenberg, Har Khorana & Severo Ochoa
- elucidate the genetic code

1968
M. Meselson's group and H.O. Smith, K.W. Wilson & T. J. Kely
- studied and characterized the first restriction nucleases

1972
Researchers at UC San Francisco & Stanford University
- produced the first recombinant DNA molecule.

1973
Stanford & UCSF researchers
- cloned the first animal gene ( a gene from Xenopus)

1975-77
Sanger's group and Maxam & Gilbert
- developed rapid DNA sequencing method

1977
Richard Robert's and Phil Sharp's labs
- Showed that eukaryotic genes contain many interruptions, called intron

1981-82
- First transgenic mice & fruit flies

1982
- GenBank, NIH's publicly accessible genetic sequence database, was formed at Los Alamos National Laboratory

1983
- PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) was invented.

1985
Robert Sinsheimer
- hosts a meeting at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz, to discuss the feasibility of sequencing the human genome.

1986
Sydney Brenner of MRC urges the European Union to undertake a concerted program to map and sequence the human genome
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
- hosts a meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to discuss plans to sequence the human genome.

Renato Dulbecco
- promotes sequencing the human genome in a paper
- merits of a human genome project are hotly debated at a meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state

Leroy Hood and Lloyd Smith and colleagues
- announce the first automated DNA sequencing machine

Charles DeLisi
- begins genome studies at DOE, reallocating $5.3 million from the fiscal year 1987 budget.

1987
Walter Gilbert
- resigns from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) genome panel and announces plans to start Genome Corp., with the goal of sequencing and copyrighting the human genome and selling data for profit.

- An advisory panel suggests that DOE should spend $1 billion on mapping and sequencing the human genome over the next 7 years-and that DOE should lead the U.S. effort. DOE's Human Genome Initiative begins.

- David Burke, Maynard Olson, and George Carle

- develop YACs for cloning, increasing insert size 10-fold

- First human genetic map was worked out with 400 restriction fragment length polymorphism

- DuPont scientists develop a system for rapid DNA sequencing with fluorescent chain-terminating dideoxynucleotides

Applied Biosystems Inc.
- puts the first automated sequencing machine, based on Hood's technology, on the market.

- First human genetic map was worked out with 400 restriction fragment length polymorphism

1988
- in a pivotal report, the NRC endorses the Human Genome Project (HGP), calling for a phased approach and a rapid scale-up to $200 million a year of new money.

- prompted by advisers at a meeting in Reston, Virginia, James Wyngaarden, then director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), decides that the agency should be a major player in the HGP, effectively seizing the lead from DOE.

- the first annual genome meeting is held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

- NIH establishes the Office of Human Genome Research and snags Watson as its head. Watson declares that 3% of the genome budget should be devoted to studies of social and ethical issues.

NIH and DOE
- sign a memorandum of understanding and agree to collaborate on the HGP.

1989
Norton Zinder
- chairs the first program advisory committee meeting for the HGP.

Olson, Hood, Botstein, and Cantor
- outline a new mapping strategy, using STSs
- DOE and NIH start a joint committee on the ethical, legal, and social implications of the HGP.
- NIH office is elevated to the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR), with grant-awarding authority.

1990
- Yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) was developed.

- Three groups develop capillary electrophoresis (left), one team led by Lloyd Smith (Nucleic Acids Research, August), the second by Barry Karger (Analytical Chemistry, January), and the third by Norman Dovichi

- NIH and DOE publish a 5-year plan. Goals include a complete genetic map, a physical map with markers every 100 kb, and sequencing of an aggregate of 20 Mb of DNA in model organisms by 2005.

- NIH begins large-scale sequencing trials on four model organisms: Mycoplasma capricolum, Escherichia coli (left, pink), Caenorhabditis elegans (left, rainbow), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (left, ovals). Each research group agrees to sequence 3 Mb at 75 cents a base within 3 years.

- NIH and DOE restart the clock, declaring 1 October the official beginning of the HGP.

- David Lipman, Eugene Myers, and colleagues at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) publish the BLAST algorithm for aligning sequences

- Launch of the Human Genome Project

- Development of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) was carried out

1991
- J. Craig Venter announces a strategy to find expressed genes, using ESTs. A fight erupts at a congressional hearing 1 month later, when Venter reveals that NIH is filing patent applications on thousands of these partial genes.

- The Japanese rice genome sequencing effort begins.

- Edward Uberbacher develops GRAIL, the first of many gene-finding programs

1992
- Bernadine Healy over patenting partial genes, Watson resigns as head of NCHGR.

- Venter leaves NIH to set up The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), a nonprofit in Rockville, Maryland. William Haseltine heads its sister company, Human Genome Sciences, to commercialize TIGR products.

- Britain's Wellcome Trust enters the HGP with $95 million.

- Mel Simon of Caltech and colleagues develop BACs for cloning

- U.S. and French teams complete the first physical maps of chromosomes: David - - Page map the Y chromosome; Daniel Cohen, Genethon and colleagues map chromosome 21

- After lengthy debate, NIH and DOE release guidelines on sharing data and resources, encouraging rapid sharing and enabling researchers to keep data private for 6 months.

- U.S. and French teams complete genetic maps of mouse and human: mouse, average marker spacing 4.3 cM, Eric Lander and colleagues at Whitehead (Genetics, June); human, average marker spacing 5 cM, Jean Weissenbach and colleagues at CEPH

- 2nd generation map of human genome basing on microsatellite genetic markers

1993
- Francis Collins of the University of Michigan is named director of NCHGR.

- NIH and DOE publish a revised plan for 1993-98. The goals include sequencing 80 Mb of DNA by the end of 1998 and completing the human genome by 2005.

- The Wellcome Trust and MRC open the Sanger Centre at Hinxton Hall, south of Cambridge, U.K. Led by John Sulston (pictured), the center becomes one of the major sequencing labs in the international consortium.

- The GenBank database officially moves from Los Alamos to NCBI, ending NIH's and DOE's tussle over control.

- New- HGP five year plan was raised

1994
- FDA approved the sale of the first genetically modified food - the FLAVR SAVR tomato

- completed a detailed genetic map of human genome

- Jeffrey Murray, Cohen, and colleagues publish a complete genetic linkage map of the human genome, with an average marker spacing of 0.7 cM

1995
- Genomes of two bacteria, Haemophilus influenzal and Mycoplasma genitalium, were sequenced.

- Venter and Claire Fraser and Hamilton Smith publish the first sequence of a free-living organism, Haemophilus influenzae, 1.8 Mb

- Patrick Brown and colleagues publish first paper using a printed glass microarray of complementary DNA (cDNA) probes

- Researchers at Whitehead and Genethon publish a physical map of the human genome containing 15,000 markers

- Completed the physical map of human genome

1996
- Completed mouse genetic map

- Completed sequencing on Yeast genome

- Sequenced Archaea genome|

- Affymetrix makes DNA chips commercially available

- DOE initiates six pilot projects, funded at $5 million total, to sequence the ends of BAC clones

- An international consortium publicly releases the complete genome sequence of the yeast S. cerevisiae

- Yoshihide Hayashizaki's group at RIKEN completes the first set of full-length mouse cDNAs

1997
- NCHGR is promoted to the National Human Genome Research Institute; DOE creates the Joint Genome Institute

- Escherichia coli genome was sequenced

1998
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome was sequenced

- Human genome project researcher released a gene map including 30 000 human genes.

- New HGP goals for 2003 - complete human genome sequencing in 2003

- Sequenced Roundworm C. elegans genome

1999
- NIH again moves up the completion date for the rough draft, to spring 2000. Large-scale sequencing efforts are concentrated in centers at Whitehead, Washington University, Baylor, Sanger, and DOE's Joint Genome Institute.

- Ten companies and the Wellcome Trust launch the SNP consortium, with plans to publicly release data quarterly.

- NIH launches a project to sequence the mouse genome, devoting $130 million over 3 years.

- British, Japanese, and U.S. researchers complete the first sequence of a human chromosome, number 22

2000
- fruit fly genome sequenced.

- Celera and academic collaborators sequence the 180-Mb genome of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the largest genome yet sequenced and a validation of Venter's controversial whole-genome shotgun method

- Because of disagreement over a data-release policy, plans for HGP and Celera to collaborate disintegrate amid considerable sniping.

- HGP consortium led by German and Japanese researchers publishes the complete sequence of chromosome 21

- At a White House ceremony, HGP and Celera jointly announce working drafts of the human genome sequence, declare their feud at an end, and promise simultaneous publication.

- DOE and MRC launch a collaborative project to sequence the genome of the puffer fish, Fugu rubripes

- An international consortium completes the sequencing of the first plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, 125 Mb.

- HGP and Celera's plans for joint publication in Science collapse; HGP sends its paper to Nature.

2001
The HGP consortium publishes its working draft in Nature , and Celera publishes its draft in Science