Dr. Kary B. Mullis was a pioneering American biochemist whose revolutionary contributions transformed molecular biology and genetic analysis. Born on December 28, 1944, in Lenoir, North Carolina, he developed an early fascination with science that led him to pursue a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He continued his academic journey at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry with research focused on bacterial siderophores under Joseph B. Neilands. Following his doctoral studies, Mullis completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Kansas Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco before joining Cetus Corporation in 1979 as a DNA chemist.
Mullis's most transformative achievement was the invention of the polymerase chain reaction PCR technique in 1983, a breakthrough that enabled the rapid amplification of specific DNA sequences from minute samples. While driving to his cottage in Northern California, he conceived the fundamental principles of PCR, which he perfected by 1985 and published in Methods in Enzymology after initial rejections from Nature and Science. This revolutionary technique became the cornerstone of modern molecular biology, facilitating unprecedented advances in genetic research, medical diagnostics, and forensic science. PCR's impact was so profound that it has been described as virtually dividing biology into the two epochs of before PCR and after PCR fundamentally changing how scientists work with DNA.
For his groundbreaking work on PCR, Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 sharing the honor with Michael Smith and also received the Japan Prize in the same year. His contributions extended beyond PCR including patents for technologies such as a plastic that changes color in response to ultraviolet light and he founded several companies including Altermune focused on programmable immunity. Mullis was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1998 cementing his legacy as one of the most influential figures in biotechnology. Despite controversy surrounding some of his later views his invention of PCR remains one of the most significant scientific advances of the twentieth century with applications spanning medicine anthropology evolutionary biology and criminal justice.
