Molecular diagnostics is a collection of techniques used to analyze biological markers in the genome and proteome, and how their cells express their genes as proteins, applying molecular biology to medical testing. In medicine the technique is used to diagnose and monitor disease, detect risk, and decide which therapies will work best for individual patients,[1][2]: foreword and in agricultural biosecurity similarly to monitor crop- and livestock disease, estimate risk, and decide what quarantine measures must be taken.[3]
By analysing the specifics of the patient and their disease, molecular diagnostics offers the prospect of personalised medicine.[4] These tests are useful in a range of medical specialties, including infectious disease, oncology, human leucocyte antigen typing (which investigates and predicts immune function), coagulation, and pharmacogenomics—the genetic prediction of which drugs will work best.[5]: v-vii They overlap with clinical chemistry (medical tests on bodily fluids).
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
pmid11901792was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Burtis CA, Ashwood ER, Bruns DE (2012). Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-4557-5942-2.
- ^ "About ITP". ITP. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
- ^ Hamburg MA, Collins FS (July 2010). "The path to personalized medicine". The New England Journal of Medicine. 363 (4): 301–4. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1006304. PMID 20551152. S2CID 205106671.
- ^ Grody WW, Nakamura RM, Strom CM, Kiechle FL (2010). Molecular Diagnostics: Techniques and Applications for the Clinical Laboratory. Boston MA: Academic Press Inc. ISBN 978-0-12-369428-7.