ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the discovery and use of enzymes led to the genetic manipulation of different organisms, giving rise to the production of recombinant proteins which have had a wide range of purposes, from functional and structural studies, to commercialization of proteins for food, drugs and cosmetics, amongst other applications. One of the most important technologies that have emerged with the advances of molecular biology has been the production of recombinant proteins. Recombinant proteins and heterologous expression open up a myriad of possibilities and allow ‘potentially’ any biopharmaceutical to be produced using these technologies. In addition to Taq polymerase and thermocyclers, another crucial tool to be developed was the automation of chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides. The companies that chemically synthesize the oligonucleotide primers also provide free online programmes for these calculations. In the 1970s, the researcher Frederick Sanger proposed a method for sequencing that is still used today.
