Mullis Develops the Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Ever since the British biophysicist Francis Crick and the American biologist James D. Watson explained, in 1953, how their double-helical model of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) accounted for genetic replication, DNA research blossomed into many fields, and practical applications of all this new knowledge became the focus of the emerging biotechnology industry. The hope was that recombinant DNA research would allow genetic engineers to manipulate DNA to create molecular products that would be commercially successful, particularly in medical applications. The U.S. Supreme Court enhanced this commercial promise when it ruled, in 1980, that new life-forms could be patented.