Kjell Kleppe

Kjell Kleppe (1934-1988) was a Norwegian biochemist and molecular biologist who was a pioneer in the PCR technique and built the first laboratory in the country for bio and gene technology.[1] Kjell Kleppe earned a B.S. degree from the University of Oslo (1955-1958) and a Ph.D. in enzymology from the University of Nebraska, USA (1958-1963). Kleppe conducted research at many prestigious universities, including Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),[2] and in 1966, he joined the University of Bergen, where he founded Felleslaboratorium for bioteknologi (FLB), the first gene technology laboratory in Norway with Professor Curt Endresen.[3] He became a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters (DKNVS) in 1984.

Kjell Kleppe
Kjell Kleppe (1985)
BornDecember 9, 1934
DiedJune 18, 1988
Alma materUniversity of Oslo (B.S.)
University of Nebraska (Ph.D.)
Scientific career
Fieldsreproductive biology
InstitutionsUniversity of Bergen

During his postdoctoral career in the United States, he put forward the idea of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).[4] Kleppe discovered the concepts for PCR while working in the laboratory of 1968 Nobel Prize winner, Har Gobind Khorana[5] at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[6] Two years after he published the founding principles of PCR, Kleppe and Khorana published a "process called repair replication for synthesizing short DNA duplexes and single-stranded DNA by polymerases."[6] 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]

References
  1. "Forskning gjennom 30 år". GC Rieber.
  2. Borgan, Eldrid (7 October 2020). "A Norwegian's discovery paved the way for the coronavirus tests we use today". Sciencenorway.
  3. "Historien før MBI". Universitetet i Bergen (in Norwegian Bokmål).
  4. Kleppe, K; Ohtsuka, E; Kleppe, R; Molineux, I; Khorana, HG (14 March 1971). "Studies on polynucleotides. XCVI. Repair replications of short synthetic DNA's as catalyzed by DNA polymerases". Journal of Molecular Biology. 56 (2): 341–61. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(71)90469-4. PMID 4927950.
  5. Kaunitz, Jonathan D. (August 2015). "The Discovery of PCR: ProCuRement of Divine Power". Digestive Diseases and Sciences. 60 (8): 2230–2231. doi:10.1007/s10620-015-3747-0. ISSN 0163-2116. PMC 4501591. PMID 26077976.
  6. "Polymerase chain reaction makes billions of DNA copies". WhatisBiotechnology.org. Retrieved 2020-12-05.


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