Christopher P. Adams is an American

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...

who founded and led (as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

) multiple

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

companies, including Mosaic Technologies and Andarix Pharmaceuticals. Adams has made a notable contribution to the field of genetics as a co-inventor (with Steve Kron) of " bridge amplification," a

polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) ...

(PCR) technique that paved the way for development of DNA sequencing and genome sequencing. Geneticist George Church and

computational biologist Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has f ...

Rob Mitra adapted Adams' and Kron's technique to be used for clonal amplification. Adams has spoken about the difficulties he faced in launching Mosaic and getting

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

s to buy in. He cites being "an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

without a graduate degree" as a major reason he faced skepticism and rejection while attempting to start Mosaic, and that his persistence was a key factor that helped him "overcome investors' reluctance." Adams has said:

"Keep in mind, I had no Ph.D. and no MBA and no real serious executive business experience. Couple that with being an African-American and I really didn't fit the mold. I also want to make it plain, though, that I think we're over that now. I do have a track record now. I think that it's almost a non-factor going forward."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Christopher 21st-century African-American scientists African-American inventors Year of birth missing (living people) Living people