In 1972, University of California, San Francisco, biochemist Herbert Boyer met Stanford University geneticist Stanley Norman Cohen at a meeting in Hawaii. The two then kicked off a collaboration that eventually led to the creation of the first recombinant DNA, a landmark that ushered in the era of modern biotechnology. By combining Cohen's expertise with bacterial plasmids and Boyer's know-how about restriction enzymes, the two found that they could use bacteria as tiny factories for producing many human proteins. Boyer went on to found Genentech in 1976.
In order to produce the proteins in mass quantities, the fledgling biotech company needed a way to grow transgenic bacteria on an industrial scale. To do that, they turned to the ancient art of fermentation. People had made wine, bread, and beer for thousands of years, yet it wasn't until World War I when tons of acetone and other explosive ingredients were needed ...
