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Incoming links: Kary Mullis
Kary Mullis Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Kary Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, which amplifies a selected DNA region through repeated copying cycles. Primers delimit the copied region, and newly produced strands become templates in later cycles.
This recursive use of products can produce exponential amplification over an appropriate range. Detection still depends on target specificity and contamination controls, because amplification multiplies unintended templates as well.[ref]
Portrait of Kary Mullis
. Photograph by Dona Mapston, shown in the crop provided by Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY-SA 3.0. Source.
Polymerase chain reaction history 2026-10-14
The 1993 Nobel chemistry announcement credits Kary Mullis with inventing the polymerase chain reaction method and states that the technique was first presented in 1985. The reusable-product principle explains its power: each successfully copied interval can help specify the next generation. The award attribution is a historical claim; it does not imply that every improvement in DNA polymerases, thermal cyclers or PCR controls came from one person.[ref]
Press release: The 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 13 October 1993 announcement, award citation and introductory account of PCR first presented in 1985