dPCR rose out of an approach first published in 1988 by Cetus Corporation when researchers showed that a single copy of the β-globin gene could be detected and amplified by PCR. This was achieved by diluting DNA samples from a normal human cell line with DNA from a mutant line having a homozygous deletion of the β-globin gene, until it was no longer present in the reaction. In 1990, Peter Simmonds and AJ Brown used this concept to quantify a molecule for the first time. Alex Morley and Pamela Sykes formally established the method as a quantitative technique in 1992.