1969 BROCK, Thomas Dale (1926 – ); FREEZE, Hudson

Thermus aquaticus gen. n. and sp. n., a nonsporulating extreme thermophile.

Discovery of Thermus aquaticus, a species of bacteria that can tolerate high temperatures. This is one of several thermophilic bacteria that belong to the Deinococcus–Thermus group, and the source of the heat-resistan…

GMN 7967 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10143

1976 CHIEN CHANG, Alice; EDGAR, David B.; TRELA, John M.

Deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase from the extreme thermophile Thermus aquaticus.

The authors showed that the heat resistant bacteria Thermus aquaticus discovered by Thomas Brock contained a vital polymerase enzyme that had evolved in this bacteria to allow it to metabolize and survive in exception…

GMN 11104 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13300

1985 MULLIS, Kary Banks (1944 – 2019); ET AL

Enzymatic amplication of B-globin genomic sequences and restriction site analysis for diagnosis of sickle cell anemia.

Polymerase chain reaction first published. With Randall K. Saiki, Stephen Scharf, Fred Faloona et al. Order of authorship in the original paper was Saiki, Scharf, Faloona, Mullis.... In 1993 the Nobel Prize in Chemist…

GMN 10785 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12981

1986 MULLIS, Kary Banks (1944 – 2019)

Specific enzymatic amplification of DNA in vitro: The polymerase chain reaction.

Improvements that Mullis made to the polymerase chain reaction in 1983 enabled PCR to become a central technique in biochemistry and molecular biology. The process was first described by Kjell Kleppe and 1968 Nobel la…

GMN 7213 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9380