Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR)
- Date
- 1983 · confidence high
- Place
- Cetus Corporation, Emeryville, California, United States
- Credited to
- Kary Mullis (Cetus; Nobel 1993); Taq polymerase from Thermus aquaticus
- People
- 👤 Kary Mullis1944–2019
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Technique that exponentially copies a fragment of DNA through temperature cycles, yielding millions of copies in hours. It is the most widely used tool in molecular biology.
Kjell Kleppe described the principle in 1971; Mullis made it practical. Cetus sold the patent to Roche for 300 million dollars.
What it led to
- Molecular diagnostics (HIV, COVID-19) and forensic medicine
- Genome sequencing and population genetics
- Palaeogenetics (Neanderthal DNA)
- molecular diagnostics (HIV, COVID-19)
- forensic medicine and exonerations
- ancient DNA and palaeogenomics
- routine cloning and sequencing
- molecular diagnostics
- genomics and sequencing
- forensic medicine
- COVID-19 testing
Built on
- DNA double-helix structure1953
- Hyperthermophile1966
- Sanger DNA sequencing1977
- DNA polymerase
- Sanger sequencing
- oligonucleotide synthesis
- synthetic oligonucleotides
- Thermus aquaticus
- chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides
- Thermostable DNA polymerase (Brock, 1969)
Made possible
- DNA fingerprinting1984
- Thermostable Taq polymerase and automated PCR1976-1988
- SELEX and aptamers (in vitro evolution of nucleic acids)1990
- Human Genome Project1990-2003
- Next-generation sequencing (454, Solexa/Illumina)2005-2006
- Neanderthal genome and Denisovans2010
- CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing2012
- Cas13 and Cas12 diagnostics (SHERLOCK and DETECTR)2017-2018
- Sequencing and release of the SARS-CoV-2 genomeenero de 2020
- COVID-19 PCR test
- palaeogenomics
- Quantitative PCR
- diagnostic PCR test
- thermal cyclers