10/10/2022
Molecular diagnostics (MDx) is the rapidly developing area of laboratory medicine that investigates human, viral and microbial genomes and the products they encode. Molecular diagnostic techniques and platforms are playing a larger and more critical role in all areas of anatomic and clinical pathology. In the last decade or so, the clinical laboratory has seen an explosion in the available menu of tests based upon DNA and RNA analysis. The completion of the Human Genome Project and the rapid advancement of technology to arise out of that effort has moved from the research bench to the clinical laboratory bench with swift success. For the first time in the history of the diagnostic laboratory, molecular pathology and diagnostics are extending the range of information available to physicians, pharmacists, geneticists, forensic scientists, research scientists and other healthcare professionals.
While traditional medical and public health laboratory platforms, methodologies and assays are the foundation of laboratory medicine, molecular diagnostics now plays a critical role in patient care.