University of Utah/National Institutes of Health

Advances in biotechnology and bioengineering helped scientists gain invaluable knowledge of the human body at the genetic and cellular levels during the 1960s and the following decades.

Genetic engineering, an associated field of biotechnology, allows scientists to target, copy, and modify specific genes and then reinsert them into the genetic material of the original organism or another organism. Two American biochemists, Stanley H. Cohen and Herbert W. Boyer, established the science of genetic engineering in 1973. Cohen and Boyer showed that they could manipulate deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, and even produce new combinations of genes that did not exist in nature.

This discovery allowed scientists in 1980 to create the first genetically engineered product for medicine—human insulin, which was an alternative to the supplies made from cow or pig cells. During this time, researchers also used genetic engineering techniques to create new medicines to treat viral infections, cancer, and other diseases.

Another scientific advance during this period was the first known birth of a baby conceived outside its mother’s womb, in 1978. A British physician removed an egg from the mother and fertilized it with sperm from the father, creating the first test-tube baby conceived through the process of in vitro fertilization.

Scientists also made new discoveries in bioengineering—the study of the biological systems that regulate the body’s actions, such as seeing and hearing. Many researchers focused on the related science of biomedical engineering, or building artificial limbs and organs. The first artificial heart, named Jarvik-7 after its inventor, Dr. Robert Jarvik, was surgically implanted into a patient in December 1982. The patient lived for 112 days before dying from complications related to the implant. Additional problems encountered by subsequent recipients of the devices limited their use.