Kjell Kleppe (1934-1988) was a Norwegian biochemist and molecular biologist who was a pioneer in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique and built the first laboratory in the country for bio- and gene technology.[1]
Kleppe performed the first PCR experiment in 1969 while working in the laboratory of 1968 Nobel Prize winner, Har Gobind Khorana at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[5][6] He described the experiment at the 1969 Gordon Conference on Nucleic Acids. Kleppe published the first description of PCR, a process he referred to as repair replication, in the Journal of Molecular Biology in 1971.[7] Like modern PCR, this early iteration used a two-primer system for the exponential replication of a segment of DNA.
Because of his initial discoveries and ideas, PCR can now be applied to forensics, genetics, and diagnostics. Recently, its most notable use is in connection to COVID-19 diagnostics, as it is able to identify bacteria and viruses.[2]
^Finstad, Terje (2017). "Naked Gene Salmon: Debating Fish, Genes, and the Politics of Science in the "Age of Publics"". Technology and Culture. 58 (1): 105. doi:10.1353/tech.2017.0003. hdl:11250/2448833.
