Pennsylvania BioHistory

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 Pennsylvania.

Tell us about Pennsylvania'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

1751 -- University of Pennsylvania founded.

In 1749 in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin presented his vision of a school in a pamphlet titled Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. Unlike other American Colonial colleges, the new school would not focus on education for the clergy. Instead, it would prepare students for lives of business and public service. The proposed program of study would become the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum. More than 250 years later, The University of Pennsylvania continues to blaze trails in education. It is home to the nation's first medical school, which added as early as 1874, a university teaching hospital. The University is also the birthplace of technological invention. In 1946, Penn introduced ENIAC, the world's first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer.

Recognized as America's first university, Penn remains today a world-renowned center for the creation and dissemination of knowledge. It serves as a model for research colleges and universities throughout the world. Penn’s Master of Biotechnology Program with its distinguished science departments, world-class biomedical research centers and critical location at the hub of the largest pharmaceutical/biotechnology corridor in the nation, is highly qualified to prepare students for careers in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

1751 -- Nation’s first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in Philadelphia.

Since its founding by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond, Pennsylvania Hospital has been an innovator in patient care, treatment techniques and medical research. The facility, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, offers a full-range of diagnostic and therapeutic medical services and is a major teaching and clinical research institution.

1830 -- John K Smith opens drugstore in Philadelphia (GlaxoSmithKline).

John K Smith opens his first drugstore in Philadelphia, and is soon joined by his younger brother to form John K Smith & Co. -- now known as GlaxoSmithKline. In 1865, Mahlon Kline joins Smith as a bookkeeper, and as he assumed additional responsibilities he was rewarded in 1875 when the company was renamed Smith, Kline & Company.

In 1891, Smith, Kline & Company acquires French, Richards & Company which provided the company a larger portfolio of consumer brands, and in 1929 the company was again renamed Smith Kline & French Laboratories and was refocused on research.

In 1952, Smith Kline & French introduced the first time-released medicine, Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine sulfate) marketed and used in a Spansule -- a new form of drug delivery, and in 1960 the company launched Contac, the cold remedy, using the Spansule to release an initial major therapeutic dose, followed by numerous smaller doses, over 10-12 hours. In 1982, SmithKline acquires Allergan, an eye and skincare business, and merged with Beckman Instruments and was renamed SmithKline Beckman, and in 1988 SmithKline acquired one of its largest competitors, International Clinical Laboratories which increased the company's size by half and established SmithKline BioScience Laboratories as the industry leader.

In 1989, SmithKline Beckman and The Beecham Group merged to form SmithKline Beecham, and in 1991 SmithKline Beecham moved its global headquarters to New Horizons Court located in Brentford, England. In 2000, SmithKline Beecham merged with Glaxo Wellcome creating GlaxoSmithKline that today is one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

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.

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.

Suggested Reading:

1865 -- Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, presents his laws of heredity.

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.

1897 -- Pocono Biological Laboratories established in Swiftwater.

Pocono Biological Laboratories established in Swiftwater by Dr. Richard Slee to produce the first of a new kind of smallpox vaccine. Dr. Edward Jenner’s vaccine had greatly reduced the death rate from smallpox, but until the late 1800's the smallpox vaccine in the U.S. was produced in unsanitary conditions that caused serious side effects in patients. Public backlash caused gains in inoculating the masses to erode. Dr. Slee, who was working as an assistant to Dr. George Sternberg in Brooklyn was dispatched to the Pasteur Institute in France to acquire a new formula that promised fewer side effects. The Pasteur Institute had mixed the mild disinfectant glycerin with the vaccine virus.

Slee's report was so positive that Sternberg suggested he establish his own laboratory to manufacture the glycerinated product. Slee had earlier contracted cholera and recouperated at the Swiftwater Inn in the Pocono Mountains, regaining his health and forming a relationship with the innkeeper's daughter. They married in 1893, and Slee used the 4.3 acres near the Inn to build his lab, and laid the cornerstone to the first building in 1897.

Ownership changes over the years led to the acquisition of the Swiftwater facility by Connaught Laboratories of Toronto, Canada in 1978. In 1989, Connaught Laboratories was acquired by Institut Mérieux S.A. which was purchased acquired by Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1994. Today, the Swiftwater facility owned by Sanofi Pasteur continues to play an important role in the company's public health initiatives. (Suggested Reading: The Spirit of Swiftwater: 100 Years at the Pocono Labs by Jeff Widmer)

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.

Suggested Reading:

1933 -- Thomas Hunt Morgan awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his chromosome theory of heredity.

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.

Transistors have become an invisible technology that is part of almost every electronic device. Every major information age innovation was made possible by the transistor and its application can be found all around us. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)

1952 -- First polio vaccine created by Dr. Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh.

IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine), also called the Salk vaccine, was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1952. The vaccine is a clear, colorless sterile suspension for subcutaneous injection. IPV contains strains of the 3 types of polioviruses (Types 1, 2, and 3), originally grown in monkey kidney cell culture and inactivated by exposure to formaldehyde. Clinical trials of IPV began in 1954, and results were dramatic: the cases of polio in the vaccinated test groups fell amazingly, and permission for IPV distribution was quickly granted by the U.S. government in 1955.

1953 -- Double helix structure of DNA revealed.

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.

Rosalind Franklin, whose work contributed to the discovery, died before this date and the rules do not allow a Nobel Prize to be awarded posthumously. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)

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1958 -- Integrated circuit invented.

1961 -- President John F. Kennedy expands U.S. Space Program

1962 -- "Silent Spring" published by Rachel Carson.

Rachel Carson who published Silent Spring which launched the modern environmental movement was born in Springdale in 1907, and her childhood in southwestern Pennsylvania nurtured a love and respect for nature which would guide her the rest of her life. Silent Spring warned of the dangers of indiscriminate pesticide use.

Carson graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

The Rachel Carson Homestead Association was was formed in 1975 to preserve and restore her birth place as a National Register historic site, and to offer education programs which advance Rachel Carson's environmental ethic. (Silent Spring Published by Mariner Books, 40th Anniverisary edition. 2002.)

1967 -- Haldan Keffer Hartline awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

1969 -- Man walks on the moon.

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.

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1972 -- Christian Boehmer Anfinsen awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1972 -- Gerald Maurice Edelman awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

1973 -- Recombinant DNA perfected.

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.

The 1984 Nobel Laureate in Medicine was awarded jointly to: Niels Jerne, Georges Köhler and César Milstein for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)

1975 -- Howard Martin Temin and David Baltimore awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

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.

1976 -- Baruch Samuel Blumberg awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

1977 -- First human gene cloned.

Walter Gilbert induced bacteria to synthesize insulin and interferon, and Frederick Sanger published the complete sequence of phage FX174. The 1980 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert for "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids, and to Paul Berg for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)

1979 -- Centocor founded.

Centocor, founded in 1979, was one of the nation’s first biotechnology companies best known for developing Remicade (a drug for rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease). The company founder, Hubert J.P. Schoemaker a Dutch-born biochemist, served as chairman of the company until 1999 when the company was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $4.9 billion.

Schoemaker, a highly respected leader for the life sciences community in Pennsylvania, was a mentor to many biotechnology entrepreneurs in the Philadelphia area. Schoemaker also founded Neuronyx, a Malvern, PA based company that uses stem cells to treat neurological and cardiovascular diseases. Schoemaker died of brain cancer in Paoli, Pennsylvania on January 1, 2006.

1980 -- U.S. Supreme Court ruled man-made organism patentable.

1980 -- Bayh-Dole Act provides for university technology transfer.

1982 -- Chemical Heritage Foundation established.

In 1980 a group of scientists and industrialists concluded that the time had come to found a national history center devoted to the chemical and molecular sciences and industries. In 1982 the Center for the History of Chemistry (CHOC) was launched as a pilot project of the University of Pennsylvania and the American Chemical Society (ACS). In 1984 the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) became the third sponsor.

In 1987 the Center was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization, now named the National Foundation for the History of Chemistry, by joint action of the ACS and AIChE. In 1992 the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) assumed its present name to better reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the sciences and industries it serves and the widening public scope of its activities. The CHF serves the community of the chemical and molecular sciences, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future. Today CHF enjoys the endorsement and support of 29 affiliated organizations.

1985 -- Michael Stuart Brown awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

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.

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.

1997 -- PA Early Stage Partners founded.

PA Early Stage Partners, founded in 1997, is a venture capital fund that seeks portfolio companies located in the corridor from New York to Washington, D.C., with a primary focus on companies located in Pennsylvania. PA Early Stage invests in early stage Technology and Life Sciences companies, typically as a lead or co-lead investor. PA Early Stage currently has approximately 30 active portfolio companies and more than $235 million under management across three venture funds. PA Early Stage has been at the forefront of successfully accelerating this innovation cycle and closing this "capital gap" in Pennsylvania and the surrounding region by making investments in promising early stage ventures.

1997 -- Stanley B. Prusiner awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

1998 -- John A. Pople awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

2001 -- Human Genome Project draft sequence published.

2001 -- The Tobacco Settlement (Act 77 of 2001) signed into law.

Pennsylvania, in the largest life sciences research, development and commercialization initiative ever funded by a single state, committed $2 billion in funding (19 percent from its share of the national tobacco settlement) for the growth of the industry. Main components of the initiative included a $1.6 billion investment in life sciences and biomedical research (approximately $64 million per year for 25 years, starting in 2002), $100 million to seed three Life Sciences Greenhouses and $60 million in venture capital funding to support commercialization of demonstrated new life science business opportunities.

2002 -- PA Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative.

The Commonwealth formally announced $100 million funding for the Life Sciences Greenhouse Initiative developing three centers of innovation, research and development throughout the Commonwealth: The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, The Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania and BIOAdvance (the Biotechnology Greenhouse Corporation of Southeastern PA).

Each is a public/private partnership (affiliating government, business, universities and economic development partners) intending to accelerate economic growth and create numerous jobs. These objectives are being realized by leveraging discoveries in the life sciences through accelerated technology transfer, shared lab and equipment opportunities, technology development funding, gap funding for new start-ups, patent protection funding, relocation assistance, business services and workforce development. The opportunities provided by this collaborative approach to information sharing are enormous. Advances in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, bionanofabrication, advanced robotics, bioinformatics, accelerated platforms for drug discovery and linked centers for clinical trials have been realized. The Greenhouse Initiative provides an innovative mechanism for the commercialization of Life Science business opportunities through transferring technology from research laboratories to entrepreneurial start-up companies, enhancing collaboration between academic, entrepreneurial, corporate, financial and governmental partners, and attracting new companies to the state.

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Tell us about Pennsylvania'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