CELL THEORY TIMELINE

History of Cell Biology

- It is a branch of biology that studies about cell structuce and function from the most
general properties up to the most unique functions found only in specialized cells.
Basically, it centers on the idea that the cell is the fundamental unit of life.

This Biology/Theory timeline contains the year, scientists

and their discoveries in chronoligical order.
 HANS and ZACHARIAH JANSEN
They invented the first primitive microscope which allowed Robert Hooke to

1590 view the cell wallsof a cork in 1665.

MARCELO MALPIGHI
Malpighi was the first to observe blood callaries in fish tails, he is considered the
precursor of embriology and history. HIs discovery was of great importance in
1660 elucidating a major issue regarding animal physiology.

ROBERT HOOKE
He discovered the cell in 1665 by examining a thin slice of cork and seeing a
multitude of little pore. Even though Hooke discovered the cell he did not know
1665 of the structure, function, nucleus, and other organelles found in cells.
 FRANCESCO REDI
He experimented to see if rotting meat turns into flies. He found out
that flies can make other flies, but rotting meat can't. This is simmilar

1668 to how cells reproduce, cells split to make other cells, which is the
third part of the cell theory.

ANTON VAN LEEUWENHOEK

He taught himself how to polish and grind glass of great curvature,
up to 270x diameters, which he then used to create the first practical

1683 microscope. In 1674 a live cell was observed by him, the very first
successful effort to do such.

FRANCOISE RASPAIL
French scientist established one of the concepts of cell theory: that
all cells arise from pre-existing cells. The basis of this was the
witnessing of binary fission under a microscope wherein a single cell
1825 divided into two daughter cells.
 ROBERT BROWN
He discovered the nucleus in plant cells. He discovered it because he went to
Australia to study flora. When he got back he was scrutinizing the epidermis of an

1831
orchid eith his microscope and he found that the cell had an opaque spot. He used
the term areola to describe this opaque spot.

MATTHIAS SCHLEIDEN
Schleiden stated that different parts of the plant are composed of cells and
communicated it to Schwann. They then became the first to formulate what was an
informal belief as a principal of equal importance to the atomic theory of chemistry.

1836 He also recognized the importance of the cell nucleus and sensed its importance
with cell division.

THEODOR SCHWANN
Matthias Scheldien had found that all plants are composed of cells, and
communicated his findings with Schwann who had found simmilar structures in the

1836
cells. in his book he concluded, "All living things are made of cells and cell
products." Which is now the first part of the cell theory.
 RUDOLF VIRCHOW
He suggested that all cell come from pre-existing cells. His aphorism'omnis cellula e cellula'
meaning every cell from a pre-existing cell became the foundations of division, even if the process

1855
was not fully understood then. He also stated that nope all plantas are made up of cells, which
eventually led to the creation of the cell theory.

GREGOR MENDEL
Through his work on pea plants he discovered the laws of inheritance, which are:
The Law of Segregation: Each inherited trait is defined by a gene pair. Parental genes are

1865
randomly separated to sex cells so that they contain only one gene pair. Offspring then inherit one
allele from each parent when cells unite in fertilization

The Law of Independent Assortment: Genes for different traits are sorted seperatly from one
another so that the inheritance of one trait is not dependent on the inheritence of another
The Law of Dominance: An organism with alternate forms of a gene will express the form that is
dominant.
He published his findings in 1865, but his discoveries were not appreciated until they were
rediscovered in 1900
 WATER FLEMING
Fleming was a pioneer of cytogenetics. He was the first to conduct systematic study of chromosomes durring
division and he called this process mitosis. His 1882 work "Zellsubstanz, kern and Zelltheilang" is considered a

1882
seminal work of modern cell biology.

THOMAS HUNT MORGAN

He confirmed Mendelian laws of inheritance and the hypothesis that genes are located on chromosomes. He did this by
extensively breeding the common fruit fly. Him and his colleagues published the Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity in 1915

1915
with all of there findings. In 1933 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

PHOEBUS LEVENE
A Russian physician and chemist, first discovered the order of the three major components of a single nucleotide
(phosphate, pentose sugar, and nitrogenous base). He was also the first to discover the carbohydrate component of RNA

1919
(ribose), and carbohydrate component of DNA (deoxyribose). Years later, Levene finally identified how DNA and RNA
molecules are put together.
 ERWIN CHARGAF
He began to challenge Levene’s previous conclusions. In 1950, he noted that the nucleotide composition of DNA differs
among species and do not repeat in the same order reached two major conclusions.

1943
Chargaff concluded that almost all DNA, no matter what organism or tissue type it comes from, still maintains certain
properties, even as its composition varies.

He postulated the “Chargaff’s Rule” which says that the amount of cytosine is equal to the amount of
guanine, and the amount of thymine is equal to the amount of adenine. In short, the total amount of
pyrimidines (thymine and cytosine) approximates the amount of purines (adenine and guanine).

GEORGE GREY
Meanwhile in the field of cytology, Grey has successfully made the first
continuous cell line to be cultured. The cell line was derived from the cervical

1951
cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, thus these cells were referred to as HeLa
cells. These cells played a significant role in the course of cell biology.
 FRANCIS CRICK and JAMES WATSON
Crick and Watson along with Maurice Wilkins solved the structure of DNA. Their
findings where published in Nature in April 1953. They later shared the Nobel
1953 prize for Physiology or Medicine.

FREDERICK SANGER
He introduced the process of DNA sequencing. The first ever organism to have its
1977 genome sequence is a bacteriophage.

KARY MULLIS
The Polymerase Chain Reaction, a method used to amplify a copy of a segment of
1980 a DNA was inverted by him.

ANDREW HAMILTON and DAVID BAULCOMBE

Hamilton and Baulcombe discovered the siRNA as part of post-transcriptional gene
1988 silencing (PTGS) in plants.