In the latest posting on his popular “Zone in with Zon” blog, Dr. Gerald Zon discusses the continuing advances in the 30-year-old technology of PCR. Dr. Zon reports that today there is one new PCR paper published approximately every 15 minutes and that the technology is “still getting faster, better, cheaper, and more enabling.” Dr. Zon briefly describes the discovery of PCR by Dr. Kary Mullis and then describes numerous breakthroughs that were enabled by the revolutionary technology. These include enabling DNA/RNA library prep for next-gen sequencing technologies; enabling paleogenomics, including the identification of a 700,000-year-old horse fossil; and enabling solar-powered microfluidic PCR devices for point-of-care diagnostics. Dr. Zon concludes his educational column with a bit of PCR-based humor in the form of a cartoon. This latest Zon blog was posted on July 15, 2013. Dr. Zon is an eminent nucleic acid chemist and Director of Business Development at TriLink BioTechnologies in San Diego, California. [Zon blog post] Login Or Register To Read Full Story