They Must Fit Together Like Lock and Key: How Enzymes Work

In 1828, German chemist Friedrich Wöhler demonstrated that organic chemicals could be synthesized in the laboratory. Following this, in 1857, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur published his investigation into the role of yeast in alcoholic fermentation. By 1897, German chemist Eduard Buchner had shown that enzymes could work without the need for living cells. This set the stage for further breakthroughs, including British biologist David Chilton Phillips's work in 1965 using X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of lysozyme, and the isolation of the first restriction enzyme by Swiss biologist Werner Arber and American postdoctoral student Stuart Linn in 1968, a crucial development for genetic engineering.