Nobel Prize laureate Kary Mullis and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Abstract

The article highlights the major life and career milestones and the extraordinary personality of 1993 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry Kary B. Mullis. The background of Mullis' invention of the polyme-rase chain reaction (PCR), a revolutionary and monumental method of molecular biology and genetics of the 20th century, is described. The PCR technique is based on multiple selective copying of a particular segment of DNA with the help of enzymes in vitro. Under these conditions, only the target region is copied, and only if it is present in the studied sample. The invention of the PCR method has been one of the most outstanding events in molecular biology in recent decades.