Molecular Diagnostics
1Center for Genetic Medicine Research, Children's National Medical Center, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20010, USA
2Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, 4-1-714, Tuljaguda Complex, Mozamzahi Road, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India
3National Centre for Cell Science, NCCS Complex, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007, India
Molecular Diagnostics
Description
Molecular diagnostics dates back to the 1980s but has seen exponential growth since the turn of the century. The field has a wide range of applications, including identifying individuals at risk for developing certain conditions (either genetic or nongenetic), screening apparently healthy populations, determining prognosis (as with cancer), monitoring patients' response to therapy, and diagnosing disease. Molecular diagnosis is very helpful tool for the families with the heritable conditions, as with its help it is very easy and accurate to provide the carrier prenatal counseling to the family member at risk. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) applications have a tremendous impact on molecular diagnostic/medicine and have taken the field of molecular diagnosis to the new heights.
The main focus of this special issue will be on the new and existing molecular diagnostics techniques available for the diagnosis of heritable, nonheritable, and infectious conditions. We also want to focus on how the use of current techniques can help the laboratory to better serve the patients population in the coming years. The special issue will become an international forum for researchers to summarize the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis given to the technical and observational results obtained within the last five years. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Next-generation sequencing technology (Exome and targeted)
- Real-time analysis pipeline
- Copy number variants
- Fluorescent in situ hybridization
- Comparative genomic hybridization techniques (array)
- RNA-based diagnosis (microarray)
- Mass spectrometric techniques
- Managing and reporting the variant to the patients (genetic counseling)
- Direct consumer testing
- Global networks of sharing the data
- New hardware and software development
- Future strategies
Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/mold/ according to the following timetable: