Beverley Cherie Millar, Jiru Xu, and John Edmund Moore Molecular biology has the potential to revolutionise the way in which diagnostic tests are delivered in order to optimise care of the infected patient, whether they occur in hospital or in the community. Since the discovery of PCR in the late 1980s, there has been an enormous amount of research performed which has enabled the introduction of molecular tests to several areas of routine clinical microbiology. Molecular biology techniques continue to evolve rapidly, so it has been problematic for many laboratories to decide upon which test to introduce before that technology becomes outdated. However the vast majority of diagnostic clinical bacteriology laboratories do not currently employ any form of molecular diagnostics but the use of such technology is becoming more widespread in both specialized regional laboratories as well as in national reference laboratories. Molecular biology offers a wide repertoire of techniques and permutations of these analytical tools.
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Molecular Diagnostics of Medically Important Bacterial Infections