1985 Kary Mullis describes the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR-a technique that allows researchers to make millions of copies of any piece of DNA they wish to study. The method is used for generating the DNA fragments for chips and has proven indispensable for almost all the genetic studies done today, including large-scale DNA sequencing of organisms from yeast to humans. Mullis, who claims that the idea for PCR came to him while he was cruising in his Honda Civic along the California coast, is awarded a Nobel prize in 1993.

Around the same time, researchers come up with a means of tagging DNA nucleotide bases with a fluorescent dye. The trick makes sequencing DNA simpler and paves the way for using fluorescently tagged DNA to detect complementary sequences on gene chips.