In November 1973 US scientists Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer et al published their findings on how they created the first GMO. [1] Their technique formed the basis of recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology. [2, 3]
Boyer’s EcoRI restriction endonuclease “scissor” enzyme “would allow Cohen to introduce specific DNA segments to plasmids, and use those plasmids as a vehicle for cloning precise, previously targeted strands of DNA. [7] They were able to cut open a plasmid loop from one species of bacteria, insert a gene from another, and close the plasmid loop. Then insert that plasmid into bacteria and demonstrated that the recombined DNA could be used by the bacterial.
They created the first genetically modified organism (GMO) and so the biotechnology industry was born.
The research was considered risky and a moratorium was widely observed until the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) developed and issued formal guidelines for rDNA work. [4]
On December 2, 1980, six years after their 1974 application their patent #4237224 was granted for the “Process for producing biologically functional molecular chimeras”. [5]
In October 1982 Eli Lilly received FDA apporval for the first GM drug product – ‘human’ insulin. The same technique that allowed mRNA “vaccine” products to be mass produced for billions of doses – Process 2.