from Christina Egan, Nick M. Cirino and Kimberlee A. Musser in Real-Time PCR: Current Technology and Applications

With the public's reawakened concern regarding use of biological agents as weapons, the rapid detection, discrimination, and identification of pathogenic organisms and toxins has become a priority for state and federal government agencies. High confidence, cost effective, and near real-time diagnostic methods are essential to protecting national health security whether the target is public health, agriculture, commodities, or water supply infrastructures. While culture-based methods have been, and will likely remain, the gold standard for microbiological diagnostics, PCR-based tests offer significant advantages in sensitivity, specificity, speed and data richness that make them invaluable to diagnostic laboratories. We describe the application of real-time PCR methods in biodefense and discuss the use of real-time PCR in biodefense in terms of general workflow and processing considerations, clinical diagnostic applications, environmental diagnostic applications, and multiplex screening. Real-time PCR assays can be either quantitative (qPCR) or qualitative, depending on whether a standard curve is included with the analytical run. Most diagnostic and biodefense applications utilise the qualitative nature of real-time PCR as a detection platform. We consider the future uses and anticipated advances in real-time PCR applications as related to biodefense.

Further reading: Real-Time PCR: Current Technology and Applications

Labels: biodefense, PCR, qPCR, real-time PCR