jan 1, 1977 - 1977: Frederick Sanger develops rapid DNA sequencing techniques

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By the early 1970s, molecular biologists had made incredible advances. They could now decipher the genetic code and spell out the sequence of amino acids in proteins. However, further developments in the field were being held back by the inability to easily read the precise nucleotide sequences of DNA.

In 1943, Cambridge graduate Frederick Sanger started working for A. C. Chibnall, identifying the free amino groups in insulin. Through this work, he became the first person to order the amino acids and obtain a protein sequence, for which he later won a Nobel Prize. He deduced that if proteins were ordered molecules, then the DNA that makes them must have an order as well.

In 1962, Sanger moved with the Medical Research Council to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where DNA sequencing became a natural extension of his work with proteins. He initially began working on sequencing RNA, as it was smaller, but these techniques were soon applicable to DNA and eventually became the dideoxy method used in sequencing reactions today.

For his breakthrough in rapid sequencing techniques, Sanger earned a second Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980, which he shared with Walter Gilbert and Paul Berg.

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