A Nobel Prize awarded to pioneering DNA chemist Kary Mullis is up for auction at Bonhams, with an estimate of $450,000-550,000.
Mullis was awarded the prize in 1993 for his invention of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which can be used to produce copies of DNA sequences.
 Kary Mullis is the third living Nobel laureate to auction his medal |
The technique has a vast range of applications, from forensic testing to detecting hereditary diseases.
As Ted Koppel of ABC News put it: "Take all the MVPs from professional baseball, basketball, and football.
"Throw in your dozen favorite movie stars and a half dozen rock stars for good measure, add all the television anchorpeople now on the air, and collectively, we have not affected the current good or the future welfare of mankind as much as Kary Mullis."
Mullis is only the third living Nobel laureate to auction off his prize.
The first was the discoverer of the DNA helix, James Watson - who sold his for $4.7m in 2014. The buyer, a Russian billionaire, immediately returned it to him.
The other was presented to physicist Leon Lederman in 1988 and sold for $760,000 in 2015.
The sale will take place in Los Angeles on February 14.
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