Sir Aaron Klug first identifies the repeated binding motif in Transcription Factor IIIA and is the first to use the term ‘zinc finger’.

Carl Pabo and Nikola Pavletich of Johns Hopkins University solve the crystal structure of zif268, now the most-commonly studied zinc finger.

Edward Lanphier leaves Somatix Therapy Corporation and makes a deal for exclusive rights to the work of Srinivan Chandrasegaran of Johns Hopkins University who combined the Fok I nuclease with zinc fingers.

Attaching nuclease proteins to zinc fingers opened up possibilities for future research in gene therapy by allowing researchers to directly modify the genome though nuclease cutting.

Sangamo's patent, titled "Nucleic acid binding proteins (zinc finger proteins design rules)", ensures that any use or production of zinc fingers with attached nucleases is the intellectual property of Sangamo.

Researcher Keith Joung of Harvard University and Mass. General Hospital develops a method for making zinc finger nuclease proteins that bind to custom target sequences.

The license allows Sigma-Aldrich to sell custom zinc finger nuclease protein pairs for approximately $30,000 each.

Keith Joung publishes tables of zinc finger binding sites that account for context-dependent effects and can be rearranged to form custom zinc finger proteins that bind to a variety of DNA sequences.

Harvard iGEM uses novel integration of existing technologies for rapid, massive production of custom zinc fingersWe have developed a rapid, comparatively low-cost, open source method for making thousands of custom zinc fingers by integrating MAGE, lambda red, and chip-based synthesis technologies.