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Biotechnology, which is the utilization and manipulation of normal biological processes to develope medicine and fuel for energy (among other things), has it beginnings all the way back to the 19th century. In that time, the people using the first biotechnological concepts did not know they were doing so, and their intents were not to cure diseases but to learn about beer fermentation. Specifically, this field of study was called zymotechnology.
During World War 1, zymotechnological processes had a new demand, as people needed industrial goods in support of the war. Compounds of bacterial fermentation were maximized in yield and used for explosives and fuel.
The term biotechnology was coined right after World War 1 and by the end of World War 2, the biotechnological tools started being applied to medical issues. The first and most significant of these was the development of penicillin.
In the later decades of the 20th century, genetic engineering was developed. Processes such as PCR and gel electrophoresis made it possible to use tiny amounts of DNA, and the same bacterial processes that were used in World War 1 to study function of genes (in both eurkaryotes and prokaryotes), genetic disorders and develop medical marvels.