Kary Mullis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kary Mullis
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Mullis in 2006
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Kary Banks Mullis
December 28, 1944 Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S.
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| Died | August 7, 2019 (aged 74) |
| Alma mater | Georgia Institute of Technology (BS, 1966) University of California, Berkeley (PhD, 1973) |
| Known for | Invention of polymerase chain reaction |
| Awards | William Allan Award (1990) Robert Koch Prize (1992) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1993) Japan Prize (1993) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular biology |
| Thesis | Schizokinen: structure and synthetic work (1973) |
| Doctoral advisor | J. B. Neilands |
Kary Banks Mullis (born December 28, 1944 – died August 7, 2019) was an American biochemist. He is famous for inventing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. This amazing method helps scientists make many copies of DNA. Because of his invention, he won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith. He also received the Japan Prize that same year. PCR quickly became a very important tool in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Kary Mullis was born in Lenoir, North Carolina, near the Blue Ridge Mountains, on December 28, 1944. His parents were Cecil Banks Mullis and Bernice Barker Mullis. His family had a farming background in this country area. As a child, Mullis enjoyed watching animals and insects in nature. He grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and graduated from Dreher High School in 1962. He became interested in chemistry in high school. He learned how to create and build solid fuel rockets during the 1960s.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1966. While there, he married his first wife, Richards Haley, and started a business. He later earned his PhD in 1973 in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). He studied bacterial iron transporter molecules in J. B. Neilands' lab. His doctoral paper was about the structure of a bacterial molecule called schizokinen.
After getting his PhD, Mullis worked as a postdoctoral researcher. He studied pediatric cardiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center from 1973 to 1977. Then, he studied pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco from 1977 to 1979.
Career Highlights
After his postdoctoral work, Mullis briefly left science to write stories. He also managed a bakery for two years. He returned to science when a friend, Thomas White, encouraged him. White helped Mullis get a job at the biotechnology company Cetus Corporation in Emeryville, California.
Even though he didn't have much experience in molecular biology, Mullis worked as a DNA chemist at Cetus for seven years. He eventually became the head of the DNA synthesis lab. It was there, in 1983, that Mullis invented the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.
After leaving Cetus in 1986, Mullis worked as a director of molecular biology for Xytronyx, Inc. in San Diego for two years. Later, he worked as a consultant for many companies and institutions. He specialized in nucleic acid chemistry and was an expert witness in DNA profiling cases. In 1992, Mullis started a business to sell jewelry containing the amplified DNA of famous people. He also founded Atomic Tags, a company that aimed to develop new technology using tiny microscopes.
In 2014, he became a distinguished researcher at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, California.
Inventing PCR and Other Ideas
In 1983, Mullis was working as a chemist at Cetus Corporation. He had an idea while driving near his home. He thought of a way to use two small pieces of DNA, called primers, to mark a specific DNA sequence. Then, he could use a special enzyme called DNA polymerase to copy it. This technique would allow scientists to quickly make many copies of a small piece of DNA. This method became a standard procedure in molecular biology labs.
His supervisor, Thomas White, encouraged Mullis to focus on PCR full-time. Mullis successfully showed how PCR worked on December 16, 1983. Other scientists at Cetus, like Randall Saiki and Henry Erlich, also worked on PCR projects. They helped show that PCR could copy a specific human gene.
Mullis's 1985 paper, co-written with Saiki and Erlich, described the PCR invention. This paper was recognized with a Chemical Breakthrough Award in 2017.
A challenge with the early PCR method was that the DNA polymerase enzyme was destroyed by the high heat needed for each copying cycle. It had to be replaced each time. In 1986, Saiki started using a heat-resistant DNA polymerase from a bacterium called Thermophilus aquaticus (Taq). This Taq polymerase only needed to be added once. This made the technique much cheaper and easier to automate. This change made Mullis's invention revolutionary for biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, medicine, and forensics.
A biologist named David Bilder said that PCR changed everything. It made molecular biology much more powerful, which then helped other fields like ecology and evolution. He said it's impossible to overstate PCR's impact. Mullis received a $10,000 bonus from Cetus for his invention.
Mullis also invented a special plastic that changes color when exposed to UV light. In 2011, he founded Altermune LLC to explore new ideas about the immune system. He once described in a TED Talk how the US Government paid for him to use this new technology against anthrax. He said the treatment was very effective.
How PCR Was Recognized
A similar idea to PCR had been described before Mullis's work. Nobel laureate H. Gobind Khorana and Kjell Kleppe wrote a paper 17 years earlier. They described a process they called "repair replication." Using this method, Kleppe copied and then quadrupled a small synthetic molecule.
However, the method developed by Mullis used repeated heating and cooling cycles. This allowed for the rapid and huge increase in copies of any desired DNA sequence. Later, a heat-stable DNA polymerase was added to the process.
Some of Mullis's co-workers at Cetus disagreed that Mullis was the only one responsible for the idea of using Taq polymerase in PCR. But, biochemist Richard T. Pon wrote that the "full potential [of PCR] was not realized" until Mullis's work in 1983. Because of this, there has been some discussion about how much credit should go to Mullis versus the team at Cetus. In the end, both Mullis and the company received recognition. Mullis received a Nobel Prize and a bonus. Cetus sold the patent for $300 million.
Views on Science and Society
In his 1998 autobiography, Mullis shared some views that differed from mainstream science. He expressed doubts about the scientific evidence for climate change and ozone depletion. He also stated his belief in astrology.
Mullis questioned the scientific link between HIV and AIDS. He wrote that he started to doubt this link when he couldn't find a specific scientific paper proving HIV caused AIDS. He published an alternative idea for AIDS in 1994. He claimed that AIDS was a diagnosis given when HIV antibodies were found in a patient's blood. Some researchers have called him an AIDS denialist because of these views. It is important to note that the vast majority of scientists agree that HIV causes AIDS.
Personal Life
Mullis enjoyed surfing and playing the guitar. He was married four times and had three children with two of his wives. At the time of his death, he had two grandchildren. He was survived by his fourth wife, Nancy.
Kary Mullis died on August 7, 2019, at his home in Newport Beach, California. He passed away from complications related to pneumonia.
Awards and Honors
- 1990: William Allan Memorial Award of the American Society of Human Genetics, Preis Biochemische Analytik of the German Society of Clinical Chemistry and Boehringer Mannheim
- 1991: National Biotechnology Award, Gairdner Award, R&D Scientist of the Year, John Scott Award of the City Trusts of Philadelphia
- 1992: California Scientist of the Year Award
- 1992: Robert Koch Prize
- 1993: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Japan Prize, Thomas A. Edison Award
- 1994: Honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of South Carolina
- 1994: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
- 1998: Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Ronald H. Brown American Innovator Award
- 2004: Honorary degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Bologna, Italy
- 2010: Honorary degree of Doctor honoris causa in the field of biological sciences from Masaryk University, Czech Republic
See also
In Spanish: Kary Mullis para niños
- Luc Montagnier, Nobel laureate who has promoted controversial and unverified health claims
