Modern biotechnology began in 1972 when biochemists at Stanford University spliced together DNA from two different organisms. Stanley Cohen and Herb

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2024-06-30 16:00:04

Modern biotechnology began in 1972 when biochemists at Stanford University spliced together DNA from two different organisms. Stanley Cohen and Herb Boyer—professors at Stanford and UC San Francisco, respectively— met the following year in a Hawaiian delicatessen to discuss how the new method, called recombinant DNA technology, could be employed to engineer living cells to make useful products. With the help of venture capitalist Robert Swanson in 1976, Boyer founded Genentech, the first biotechnology company. By 1978, Genentech was making human insulin using engineered E. coli. Until that point, insulin had required painstaking extraction from the pancreas of pigs, necessitating the deaths of 24,000 animals to make one pound of insulin; enough to treat just 750 people annually.

The race to exploit recombinant DNA technology was on. Biotech startups were incorporated, pharmaceutical firms partnered with universities, and even oil companies initiated research programs to create engineered organisms.