Polonies are discrete clonal amplifications of a single DNA molecule, grown in a gel matrix.
Polonies can be generated using several techniques that include solid-phase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in polyacrylamide gels.
However, other earlier patented technologies, such as that from Manteia Predictive Medicine (acquired by Solexa), which generate DNA on a solid-phase surface by bridge amplification, are generally referred to as "clusters".
The concept of localizing and analyzing regions containing clonal nucleic acid populations was first described in patents by Brown, et al.. (assigned to Genomic Nanosystems), however these are in liquid phase.
This technology, initially coined "DNA colony generation", had been invented and developed in late 1996 at Glaxo-Welcome's Geneva Biomedical Research Institute (GBRI), by Dr Pascal Mayer and Dr Laurent Farinelli,[1] and was publicly presented for the first time in 1998.