WhatIsBiotechnology

1/ Albert Claude was born in Longlier, Belgium, 24 August 1898. A physician and cell biologist, in 1930 he developed the process of cell fractionation to identify and purify the RNA from the Rous sarcoma virus which causes cancer in chickens.

2/ Claude was also one of the first to use of the electron microscope to study biological cells, which enabled him to discover that ribosomes are the power houses of all cells. Later on Claude helped to show that all eukaryotic cells have a lace-work structure.

1/ Roger Sperry was born in Hartford CT, USA, 20 Aug 1913. A neuropsychologist and neurobiologst, Sperry is best known for having shown that the two hemispheres of the brain function independently of one another and have completely different functions, a phenomenon he called the 'split brain'.

3/ Sperry later studied humans who had had their corpus callosum severed as part of their treatment for epilepsy. He was jointly awarded the #NobelPrize for Medicine in 1981 for 'discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres.'

1/ Roger Sperry was born in Hartford CT, USA, 20 Aug 1913. A neuropsychologist and neurobiologst, Sperry is best known for having shown that the two hemispheres of the brain function independently of one another and have completely different functions, a phenomenon he called the 'split brain'.

1/ Salvador E Luria was born in Torino, Italy, 13 August 1912. Luria was a microbiologist who made his name in 1943 when he demonstrated, with Max Delbruck, that viruses undergo permanent changes in their hereditary material

3/ Luria had landed up working with Delbruck in the US because he was banned from academic research fellowships in Italy under Mussolini's Italian fascist regime because of his Jewish background.

1/ Salvador E Luria was born in Torino, Italy, 13 August 1912. Luria was a microbiologist who made his name in 1943 when he demonstrated, with Max Delbruck, that viruses undergo permanent changes in their hereditary material

1/ Frederick Sanger, twice Nobel Prize winner, was born 13 August 1918 in Rendcomb, UK. The first to determine the DNA sequence of insulin, Sanger proved proteins have a defined chemical composition.

2/ Sanger was also pivotal to the development of the dideoxy chain-termination method for sequencing DNA molecules, known as the Sanger method. This allowed for the sequencing of long stretches of DNA which transformed the speed and accuracy and laid the foundation for the Human Genome Project.

1/ Reinhold Benesch was born in Poland, 13 August 1919. Benesch was a biochemist. He is best known for the discovery he made with his wife, Ruth Benesch in 1967 which showed how haemoglobin transports oxygen during respiration.

2/ They demonstrated that 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, an organic phosphorous compound, plays a pivotal role in loosening the bonds between haemoglobin and oxygen which improves the flow of oxygen from blood to the tissues.

1/ Arne W K Tiselius was born in Stockholm, Sweden, 10 Aug 1902. A Swedish biochemist, Tiselius devised electrophoresis, a technique used to separate charged macromolecules like DNA, RNA and proteins according to their size.

1/ Cesar Milstein and Georges Kohler published their technique for monoclonal antibodies on 7 August 1975. Able to provide limitless quantities of antibodies for the first time, their technique was a major breakthrough.

1/ Alexander Fleming was born 6 August 1881. A biologist and microbiologist, Fleming first made his mark in 1923 when he discovered lysosyme, an enzyme produced in the tears, saliva, mucus and human milk which is an important part of the immune system.

2/ Fleming is best known for having found penicillin, a mould subsequently developed as the first antibiotic drug to treat bacterial diseases. He was awarded the #NobelPrize in 1945 for this discovery.

1/ Jonathan Hutchinson was born in Selby, Yorkshire, UK, 23 July 1828. A physician and pathologist, Hutchinson is renowned for his life-long study of congenital syphilis.

3/ Hutchinson's description provided a useful means for diagnosing the disease before the discovery of Treponema pallidum bacteria and development of the Wassermann test.

1/ Jonathan Hutchinson was born in Selby, Yorkshire, UK, 23 July 1828. A physician and pathologist, Hutchinson is renowned for his life-long study of congenital syphilis.

1/ Albert Calmette was born in Nice, France, 12 July 1863. Calmette was a physician and bacteriologist who is credited with the discovery that the virulence of bovine tubercle bacilli is weakened when cultured on bile-containing medium.

2/ The discovery of the virulence of the bovine tubercle bacilli in 1908, paved the way to the development of the tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG).

1/ Ludwig Guttmann was born in Tost, Prussia, German Empire (now Toszek, Poland) on 3 July 1899. A neurologist Guttmann organised the first Stoke Mandeville Games for disabled war veterans.

4/ Guttmann managed to save many from being arrested or deported to concentration camps by admitting them as patients using his position as medical director of Breslau Jewish Hospital.

1/ Ludwig Guttmann was born in Tost, Prussia, German Empire (now Toszek, Poland) on 3 July 1899. A neurologist Guttmann organised the first Stoke Mandeville Games for disabled war veterans.

2/ Taking place on the first day as the opening of the London Olympics in 1948, Guttman's games came to be known as the Paralympic Games.

1/ OTD, 30 July 1952, the first successful open heart surgery was performed. The surgery was performed on Henry Opticek, a 41-year-old male suffering from shortness of breath, by Forest D Dodrill at Harper University Hospital at Wayne State University in Michigan.

1/ William H Stein was born in New York 25 June 1911. A biochemist, Stein shared the 1972 #NobelPrize for desciphering the composition and function of ribonuclease, an enzyme that catalyses the break down of RNA into smaller components.

3/ Stein carried out the work with his colleague Stanford Moore in 1963. The two scientists were aided by their invention of the first means for automated amino acid analysis.

1/ William H Stein was born in New York 25 June 1911. A biochemist, Stein shared the 1972 #NobelPrize for desciphering the composition and function of ribonuclease, an enzyme that catalyses the break down of RNA into smaller components.

1/ Oliver Smithies was born in Halifax, UK, 23 June 1925. A geneticist and physical biochemist, Smithies first made his mark in 1955 through his invention of starch gel electrophoresis, a technique used to study human protein variation.

2/ Later on, in the 1980s Smithies developed a method for targeted gene replacement in mice, now known as gene targeting, for which he was awarded the #NobelPrize for Medicine in 2007.

1/ Ada E Yonath was born in Jerusalem, Palestine (now Israel), 22 June 1939. Yonath is a biochemist who won the #Nobelrize for Chemistry in 2009 for helping to map the structure of ribosomes, the molecule that helps translate RNA into protein.

2/ Yonath started the research in the 1970s using x-ray crystallography. By 2001 she had worked out the complete high-resolution of structures of both ribosomal subunits and discovered a region important to the process of polypeptide polymerisation.