![\"20190814lnp2-mullis.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/acs-h.assetsadobe.com\/is\/image\/\/content\/dam\/cen\/97\/web\/8\/WEB\/20190814lnp2-mullis.jpg\/?$responsive$&wid=150&qlt=90,0&resMode=sharp2\" "\\"Photo")
Credit: Alamy Kary Mullis<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Kary B. Mullis, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, died Aug. 7 of pneumonia at the age of 74. He won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for copying and amplifying DNA. Mullis invented the PCR method in 1983 as a chemist at Cetus Corporation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The original version of PCR that Mullis developed uses repeated cycles of elevated temperatures to separate DNA strands, which are then copied by a heat-stable DNA polymerase. Repeating the cycle many times leads to an exponential increase in the quantity of DNA. In this way, even traces of DNA can be amplified into amounts that can be easily sequenced or quantified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n PCR amplification played a key role in the Human Genome Project, in which most of the DNA blueprint of one person was sequenced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe initial scientific goals of the Human Genome Project were actually established before PCR had become a routine laboratory method,\u201d says Eric D. Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health and participant in the Human Genome Project. \u201cIn retrospect, the widespread development of PCR-based methods ultimately turned out to be critical\u2014in many ways essential\u2014for the Project\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n