Kary Banks Mullis Biography - Nobel Prize Winner (1993)

Kary Banks Mullis (b. December 28, 1944) is an American biochemist who developed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a central technique in molecular biology which allows the amplification of specified DNA sequences, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Japan Prize in 1993. PCR remains one of the most influential molecular techniques of our day, opening the door to a wide variety of genetic and molecular research as well as applications in medicine, forensics, paleontology and other fields. Mullis continues his scientific work, but has more recently become known for idiosyncratic and sometimes controversial views on topics unrelated to biochemistry.

Personal history
Mullis was born in Lenoir, North Carolina, and grew up in Columbia, South Carolina where he attended Dreher High School. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, and received a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. [1] He has been married four times (including his current marriage), and has two sons and one daughter. He currently resides in Newport Beach, California and in Anderson Valley, California.

Inventions
In 1983, while working for the biotechnology company Cetus, Mullis came up with the idea of using the Thermophilus Aquaticus (taq) DNA polymerase to amplify segments of DNA. DNA amplification existed prior to PCR, however the polymerases used were destroyed when the DNA was melted (heated) and needed to be repeatedly replaced. The taq polymerase was heat resistant and only needed to be added once thus making the technique dramatically more cost effective. A more complete story of the development of this technology can be found elsewhere in Wikipedia: in an article on the source of the enzyme and an article on the history of the technique. The importance of this invention and variations on it can hardly be overstated. It has created revolutions in molecular biology, genetics, medicine and forensics.

Some controversy surrounds the balance of credit that should be given to Mullis versus the team at Cetus (see below); in practice, credit has accrued to both the inventor and the company (although not its individual workers) in the form of a Nobel Prize and a $10000 Cetus bonus for Mullis, and $300 million for Cetus when the company sold the patent to Roche Molecular Systems.

Mullis has also invented a UV-sensitive plastic that changes color in response to light, and most recently has been working on an approach for mobilizing the immune system to neutralize invading pathogens and toxins, leading to the formation of his current venture, Altermune LLC. In his Nobel page, he described this idea this way:

It is a method using specific synthetic chemical linkers to divert an immune response from its nominal target to something completely different which you would right now like to be temporarily immune to. Let's say you just got exposed to a new strain of the flu. You're already immune to alpha-1,3-galactosyl-galactose bonds. All humans are. Why not divert a fraction of those antibodies to the influenza strain you just picked up. A chemical linker synthesized with an alpha-1,3-gal-gal bond on one end and a DNA aptamer devised to bind specifically to the strain of influenza you have on the other end, will link anti-alpha-Gal antibodies to the influenza virus and presto, you have fooled your immune system into attacking the new virus.

This work is now being funded by DARPA.

Public controversies
Some of the principles of PCR were described in 1971 by Kjell Kleppe, a Norwegian scientist, and some have asserted that Kleppe has a better claim to the invention. In addition, the suggestion that Mullis was solely responsible for the idea of using Taq polymerase in the PCR process has been refuted by his co-workers at the time. Indeed, one story is that David Gelfand and Randy Saiki at Cetus developed the idea of using a thermostable DNA polymerase, and that Mullis was only recognized as an inventor after he came to the Cetus Labs wielding a gun. The Kleppe story may best illustrate the fact that an invention, even if has been conceptualized earlier, does not really exist until it can be developed and realized.

The anthropologist Paul Rabinow wrote a book on the history of the PCR method in 1996 which questioned whether or not Mullis "invented" PCR or "merely" came up with the concept of it. Rabinow, a Foucault scholar interested in issues of the production of knowledge, used the topic to argue against the idea that scientific discovery is the product of individual work, writing, "Committees and science journalists like the idea of associating a unique idea with a unique person, the lone genius. PCR is, in fact, one of the classic examples of teamwork."

Mullis has also drawn controversy for his past association with Peter Duesberg and his skepticism about the evidence for the idea that HIV causes AIDS. (For more on this topic, see also AIDS reappraisal and the interviews listed below.) As the recipient of a Nobel Prize for the PCR technique that is used to measure viral load in people with AIDS, he has often been cited by people within the AIDS dissident movement as someone who supports their views.

He also denigrates concern about global warming, denying that it is known to be human caused, and disagrees with the idea that CFCs cause ozone depletion.

Mullis became known to a wider public as a potential forensic DNA analyst and witness for the defense in the OJ Simpson trial. News coverage of Mullis, his activities, and his background was extensive, and the defense moved to prevent cross-examination about his personal life including "social relationships, domestic discord and use of controlled substances." . However, evidently satisfied that they had adequately discredited the DNA evidence without him, the defense did not call him.

In Mullis's 1998 essay collection, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, he relates a number of experiences that some consider strange, and which critics point out to question his scientific judgment. He also details his use of LSD. Perhaps the strangest episode Mullis relates, he says, happened while at his cabin in the remote northern California wilds; John Edward Mack noted that episode has many hallmarks of the abduction phenomenon. Late one evening while walking to the latrine, Mullis saw a "glowing raccoon" which spoke to him, saying "Good evening, doctor." The next thing he remembered, several hours had seemingly passed without his recall: it was dawn, and he was strolling on a path near the cabin. His clothing was dry and clean, unlike what he'd expected from wandering the forest in the dark of night for several hours.

Mullis later wrote, "I wouldn't try to publish a scientific paper about these things, because I can't do any experiments. I can't make glowing raccoons appear. I can't buy them from a scientific supply house to study. I can't cause myself to be lost again for several hours. But I don't deny what happened. It's what science calls anecdotal, because it only happened in a way that you can't reproduce. But it happened."