Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Global Age

Automated PCR with Taq Polymerase — Saiki et al.

1988 AD · Transmission: Global
BiologyMethodNorth American

In 1988, Randall Saiki and colleagues at Cetus Corporation published in Science the integration of thermostable Taq polymerase into the PCR protocol, eliminating the need to manually add enzyme after each denaturation cycle. This step turned PCR from a laborious, semi-manual procedure into the fully automatable technique enabled by modern thermocyclers. The robustness and scalability of Taq-based PCR was the technical foundation of the Human Genome Project and contemporary molecular biology. The 1988 paper is one of the most cited in the history of biology.

InstitutionCetus Corporation, Emeryville, California
Historical regionUSA
Primary sourceSaiki, R. K. et al. — "Primer-Directed Enzymatic Amplification of DNA with a Thermostable DNA Polymerase" (Science, 239(4839), 487-491, 1988)
Original languageEnglish
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