DNA Interactive Site Map

Site Map

Timeline

Pre 1920	Johann Gregor Mendel, Friedrich Miescher, Carl Erich Correns, Hugo De Vries, Erich Von Tschermak-Seysenegg, Thomas Hunt Morgan
1920-49	Hermann Muller, Barbara McClintock, George Wells Beadle, Edward Lawrie Tatum, Joshua Lederberg, Oswald Theodore Avery, Evelyn Witkin
1950-54	Erwin Chargaff, Rosalind Franklin, Martha Chase, Alfred Day Hershey, Linus Pauling, James Dewey Watson, Francis Harry Compton Crick, Seymour Benzer
1955-59	Francis Harry Compton Crick, Paul Charles Zamecnik, Maholon Hoagland, Matthew Stanley Meselson, Franklin William Stahl, Arthur Kornberg
1960s	Sydney Brenner, Marshall Warren Nirenberg, Francois Jacob, Jacques Lucien Monod, Roy John Britten
1970s	David Baltimore, Howard Martin Temin, Stanley Norman Cohen, Herbert W. Boyer, Maxine Singer, Richard John Roberts, Phillip Allen Sharp, Roger Kornberg, Frederick Sanger
1980s	Leland Hartwell, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Eric Francis Wieschaus, Kary Mullis, Alec Jeffreys, Thomas Robert Cech, Sidney Altman, Mario Renato Capecchi
1990s-2000-	H. Robert Horvitz, Mary-Claire King, Stephen F. Fodor, Patrick Henry Brown, J. Craig Venter, Francis Collins, John Sulston

Finding the Structure
	Problem	What is the structure of DNA?
	Players	Erwin Chargaff, Rosalind Franklin, Linus Pauling, James Watson and Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins
	Pieces of the Puzzle	Wilkins' X-ray, Pauling's triple helix, Franklin's X-ray, Watson's base pairing, Chargaff's ratios
	Putting it Together	DNA is a double-stranded helix.
Copying the Code
	Problem	How is DNA copied?
	Players	James Watson and Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner, François Jacob, Matthew Meselson, Arthur Kornberg
	Pieces of the Puzzle	The Central Dogma, Semi-conservative replication, Models of DNA replication, The RNA experiment, DNA synthesis
	Putting it Together	DNA is used as a template for copying information.
Reading the Code
	Problem	How is the DNA code read?
	Players	Paul Zamecnik and Mahlon Hoagland, Sydney Brenner, Marshall Nirenberg, Marshall Nirenberg and collaborators, Har Gobind Khorana
	Pieces of the Puzzle	Breaking the code, Cell-free extracts, The genetic code, The other codons, Defining the gene
	Putting it Together	The DNA code is read in triplets.
Controlling the Code
	Problem	How is the DNA code controlled?
	Players	François Jacob and Jacques Monod, Walter Gilbert
	Pieces of the Puzzle	DNA packaging, The lac operon
	Putting it Together	The DNA code is regulated by proteins.

Revolution
	Problem	How do you study a gene?
	Players	James Watson, Paul Berg, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, The controversy
	Pieces of the Puzzle	Restriction enzymes, DNA ligation, The first recombinant DNA, DNA transformation
	Putting it Together	rDNA: more risk than reward?
Techniques
	Cutting & Pasting	Using enzymes to manipulate DNA
	Transferring & storing	Delivering foreign DNA into a cell
	Large-scale analysis	Analyzing the activity of thousands of genes
	Sorting & sequencing	Determining the size and sequence of DNA fragments
	Amplifying	Making many copies of DNA
	Model organisms	Using model organisms in research
Production
	Problem	Making insulin with recombinant DNA technology
	Players	Herbert Boyer, David Goeddel, Walter Gilbert
	Pieces of the Puzzle	Synthetic insulin, Synthesizing the DNA, Isolating the DNA, The P4 facility
	Putting it Together	Synthetic insulin was made using recombinant DNA

Tour
	Flyover	How do you study a gene?
	Chromosome close-up	James Watson, Paul Berg, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, The controversy
	Genome FISHing	Restriction enzymes, DNA ligation, The first recombinant DNA, DNA transformation
	Genome spots	rDNA: more risk than reward?
The Project
	Problem	How do you map, sequence, and find all the genes in the human genome?
	Players	Pros & cons, Public consortium, Private project, Money, Technology, Competition and the media
	Pieces of the puzzle	Maps and markers, Storing DNA, Sequencing head to toe, Whole genome shotgun, Sequencing DNA, Dealing with the data, Finding genes
	Putting it Together	Viewing our code for the first time
Genome Mining
	Meaning	Meaningful sequences
	DNA Analysis	Analyzing DNA
	Gene features	What makes up a gene?
	Gene finding	Finding genes in DNA
	Gene Boy	A multi-function sequence analysis tool

Human Identification
	Profiling	DNA variations and fingerprints, The first DNA fingerprints, Today's DNA profile
	Family	Sarbah vs. Home Office, Ghana Immigration Case, 1985
	Murder	State of Florida vs. Jones and Reesh, Murder at Rodman Dam, 1988
	Innocence	The Innocence Project
Recovering the Romanovs
	The Romanov Family	The Romanov Family
	The mystery of Anna Anderson	The mystery of Anna Anderson
	Science solves a mystery	Science solves a mystery
Genes and Medicine
	Gene hunting	Mary-Claire King, Mark Skolnick, Markers, The finish line
	Gene testing	Barbara Weber, Denise, Making a pedigree, Testing
	Gene profiling	Patrick (Pat) Brown, Stephen Fodor, David Botstein, Techniques
	Drug design	Brian Druker, The Philadelphia chromosome, Bud's story, How Gleevec™ works
	Gene Targeting	Mario Capecchi, Animal models, Techniques, Possibilities
Human Origins
	Our family tree	Meet the extended family
	Comparisons	Bones, Behavior, DNA
	Gene genealogy	Mitochondrial DNA, Y Chromosome, Other genome regions, A molecular clock?, Tracing ancestries
	Migrations	Follow the paths, Hear the stories
	Variation	Primate diversity, Interviews, Variation activity

Threat of the unfit
	Founders	Bringing the eugenics movement to prominence
	The fit and the unfit	Pedigrees of the fit and unfit
	Threats	The eugenicists' views on the socially "unfit"
	Epilogue	Eugenics as the "solution" to social problems
Trial of Carrie Buck
	Prologue	Upholding the "legality" of sterilization
	Players	Carrie Buck, Emma Buck, Vivian Dobbs, Albert Priddy, Aubrey Strode, Irving Whitehead, Arthur Estabrook, Harry Laughlin, Oliver Wendell Holmes
	Trial	Buck vs. Bell: forced sterlization of the "feebleminded"
	Outcome	The Supreme Court decision
	Epilogue	The truth about Buck vs. Bell
In the Third Reich
	Taking the Torch	Nazi eugenics
	The "final" solution	"The final solution" to mental illness
	Applying the solution	The concentration camps
	Epilogue	After World War II
Living with Eugenics
	Living with depression	The highs and lows of manic depression
	Kallikak revisited	Comparing family pedigrees
	The diagnosis	Dealing with the diagnosis
	Epilogue	The "eugenic quandary," prenatal testing for manic depression