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 Illinois.
Tell us about Illinois'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.
1851 -- Northwestern University founded.
Northwestern University was founded
in Evanston in 1851. Today, the private university has two campuses, Evanston and Chicago, and
enrolls around 15,000 full-time students. Northwestern in home to the Feinberg School of
Medicine and the McGaw Medical Center, an academic medical center focused on education, research, and
clinical services.
Northwestern is also home to the International Institute for Nanotechnology, created as an umbrella
organization for multimillion dollar nanotechnology research efforts at Northwestern University.
In 2004, the FDA approved Lyrica, a prescription drug developed by Northwestern scientists.
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.
1867 -- The Illinois Industrial University (University of Illinois) founded.
The University of Illinois was founded
in 1867 in Urbana as the Illinois Industrial University under the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862.
Today the university includes three campuses - Chicago, Springfield, and Urbana-Champaign - which
offer hundreds of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.
A world leader in discovery and research, the University has yielded such innovations as the web
browser, new plant varieties, and the discovery of a third life form. The three campuses bring in
more federal research dollars than all other public universities in Illinois combined. The
Urbana-Champaign campus houses more than 80 centers, laboratories, and institutes that perform
research for government agencies, inustry, and campus units. One center, the
Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center,
specializes in genomics and proteomics.
The University of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC) is home to the nation's largest medical school. UIC is the main educator for the state's
healthcare professionals and also operates Illinois' major public medical center, specializing in
living donor transplantation, neurology, macular degeneration, and digestive diseases.
In 2003, the University of Illinois became the first public university to have two of its
faculty members win Nobel prizes in the same year.
1869 -- The Southern Illinois Normal University (Southern Illinois University) founded.
The Southern Illinois University was founded
in 1869 as the Southern Illinois Normal University, a teachers' college. The school is now comprised of
two institutions, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale with a School of Medicine in Springfield, and Southern Illinois University at
Edwardsville. The university offers degrees in 32 fields of study including law, medicine, and
dental medicine.
1876 -- Cook County Hospital founded.
Cook County Hospital, founded
in 1876 and followed soon thereafter by Rush Medical College (1877), and the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1881), were established
on the Near West Side following the great Chicago Fire of 1871. This area now known as the Illinois Medical District (IMD)
is one of the largest urban healthcare, educational, research and technology districts in the nation.
The IMD was officially established with the signing of the Illinois Medical District Act in 1941, and has continually grown
over the years and in 1984 included the establishment of the Chicago Technology Park.
Today, the IMD continues to develop its coordinated plan for medical facilities and services that includes the redevelopment
of the District Development Area. Guided by the Illinois Medical District Commission (IMDC), a seven-member panel appointed by
State of Illinois, Cook County, and City of Chicago leadership, the IMD is an imporant resource for supporting the state's
biotechnology development in the 21st century.
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.
1888 -- Abbott Alkaloidal Company founded.
Abbott Alkaloidal Company (Abbott Laboratories) was founded
in 1888 by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott a practicing physician and drug store proprietor in Chicago. Dr. Abbott
used the active alkaloid part of a medicinal plant and formed pills called “dosimetric granules” that provided more
effective treatment than competitor's products.
In the early 1900's the company refocused it's research from alkaloids to synthetic chemistry-based medicines, and in
1915, the name of the company changed to Abbott Laboratories to reflect it's commitment to expanded research and development,
and strategic acquisitions. During World War I Abbott produced drugs that were no longer available from German
manufacturers, including procaine a substitute for novocaine, and during World War II, the company was one of the
five U.S. pioneering companies that assisted Great Britain produce penicillin. In 1946, Abbott developed
radiopharmaceuticals and created the world’s leading immunodiagnostics business, and in 1985 the first HIV blood screening
test. In 1996, Abbott released a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antigen assay that detects the virus’s HIV-1 antigen
for use in blood-screening centers.
Today, Abbott is a global health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and
marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs
65,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.
1890 -- Searle and Hereth Co founded.
Searle and Hereth Co. was established
in 1890 as G.D. Searle and Co. in Chicago. Initially founded in 1868 when Gideon Searle purchased
the O.K. Drug Store in Fortville, Indiana, and a store in Anderson Indiana that was renamed Henderson &
Searle. In Omaha Nebraska Searle met Dr. William Hereth who would later be Searle's business partner.
In 1888, Searle and Hereth a manufacturing business was founded, and shortly thereafter Searle
acquired Hereth's share of the business, relocated to Chicago, and in 1890 renamed the company name
G.D. Searle & Co 1890, later known as Searle Laboratories.
Following Searless death in 1917, the company was led by his son C. Howard Searle, and family members for several
decades. In 1925, Searle bought an old Abbott Laboratories plant in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood and moved
its operations to nearby Skokie in 1942. The company's annual sales were nearly $20 million in 1950 and
Dramamine, a drug used to counter motion sickness, was its best selling product. In 1960, Searle
became the first American company to sell an oral contraceptive known as "Enovid." The company's annual sales
eceeded $700 million in 1975, and the company employed nearly 4,500 people in the Chicago area. In 1981,
Searle launched a new artificial sweetener, aspartame, known better as "NutraSweet."
In 1985, the company was acquired by the Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis. In 2000, Monsanto was acquired by New
Jersey–based Pharmacia & Upjohn which retained Searle's research, development, and manufacturing plant in Skokie but
closed the headquarters. In 2003, Pfizer acquired Pharmacia in 2003 closes Searle's Skokie plant resulting in the
layoff of its 1,500 employees.
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.
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.
The Illinois Medical District, created in 1941 by
the Illinois General Assembly, is a 560-acre special-use zoning district on the West Side of the City of
Chicago. The district is one of the largest urban healthcare, educational, research and technology
districts in the nation. Today it employs 20,000 workers, generates approximately $220 million in
research annually, and provides incubation for about 30 emerging technology companies.
1946 -- Argonne National Laboratory founded.
Argonne National Laboratory, founded in 1946, originated at
the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory, part of the World War II Manhattan Project. On December. 2, 1942,
Enrico Fermi and his team that included about 50 researchers at the Met Lab created the world's first controlled nuclear
chain reaction in a racquets court at the University of Chicago. Following the war, Argonne was given the mission of
developing nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes. Over the years, Argonne's research expanded to include many other areas of
science, engineering and biotechnology.
Today, the laboratory has approximately 2,900 employees, including about 1,000 scientists and engineers, of whom about 750
have doctorate degrees. Argonne's annual operating budget of about $475 million supports roughly 200 research projects,
ranging from studies of the atomic nucleus to global climate change research. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than
600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations. Argonne occupies 1,500 wooded acres in DuPage County, IL.
The site is surrounded by forest preserve about 25 miles southwest of Chicago's Loop. The site also houses the U.S. Department
of Energy's Chicago Operations Office.
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 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.
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)
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)
1966 -- Charles Huggins awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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.
1971 -- NASDAQ Stock Market founded.
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.
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)
Illinois
Technology Transfer Resources -- A comprehensive listing of technology transfer
resources in the state of Illinois, and select national and international resources.
1990 -- Human Genome Project established.
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.
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.
1998 -- John A. Pople awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Illinois Biotechnology Organization (iBIO) is a non-profit
trade association that champions the life sciences in Illinois and the surrounding Midwest. iBIO works with leaders from business,
academia, and politics to promote the development and retention of new companies, as well as corporate expansion.
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.
iBIO Institute, based in Chicago, provides education, training and research to the
life sciences community and general public. The Institute implements K-12 and community college education programs; training for new and
experienced biotechnology workers and entrepreneurs; and outreach to minority and other underserved communities. The iBIO Institute is an
IRS certified public charity, and was founded by the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization, which champions the life sciences in
Illinois and surrounding Midwest.
In June 2007, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Astellas US, and other corporate donors
announced their support for biotechnology education and entrepreneurship in Illinois through gifts totaling nearly $1 million to the
iBIO® Institute. The Institute will use a portion of the fund to support
the rollout of iBIO PROPEL, a major new educational program designed to boost the efforts of Illinois biotechnology entrepreneurs at the
Molecular Biology Research Building at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The purpose of the program is to provide a ‘boot camp’
educational experience for entrepreneurs, teaching them the secrets of successful startups, and introducing them to an incredible range
of resources
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 Illinois'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.
The 
