November 20, 1981: Mammalian Cells Transfected by Cloned Poliovirus Complementary DNA

A research conducted by American virologist Vincent Racaniello was published on November 20, 1981, in Science journal, and showed that a complete, cloned complementary DNA copy of the RNA genome of poliovirus was constructed in a bacterial plasmid and then was introduced into mammalian cells. The mammalian cells transfected with the hybrid plasmid produced infectious poliovirus. Racaniello proved the cloned virus was still infectious, and initiated more development and application of transfection technology.

Reference
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6272391

Image Source
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34082627

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