Cloning and expression of human interferon in bacteria
Clonación y expresión del interferón humano en bacterias
- Date
- 1980 · confidence high
- Place
- Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan
- Credited to
- Tadatsugu Taniguchi; Charles Weissmann (Zurich); David Goeddel (Genentech)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
In 1979–1980 teams in Tokyo, Zurich and San Francisco cloned the cDNAs of human interferons β and α and expressed them in Escherichia coli. Before, only milligrams were obtained from kilograms of blood leukocytes, making interferon one of the first recombinant biopharmaceuticals.
Shared priority: Taniguchi (Cancer Institute Tokyo, IFN-β, 1979–1980), Weissmann and Biogen (IFN-α, 1980) and Goeddel (Genentech, IFN-α 1980). The date reflects the first publication; the place is that of the first group.
What it led to
- recombinant α and β interferons against hepatitis C, leukaemias and multiple sclerosis
- founding of Biogen (1978) and the first European industrial alliances
- low-cost Cuban and Asian interferons (Heberon)