Molecular diagnostics : fundamentals, methods, and clinical applications / Lela Buckingham.

Includes index.

"Molecular technology continues to grow in importance in patient care. Training of health-care professionals routinely includes molecular biology, from laboratory techniques to therapeutic decisions. This textbook was written to provide fundamental knowledge of molecular biology, molecular methods, and their clinical applications. The primary audience for this text is students enrolled in Medical Laboratory Science programs at all levels. It explains basic molecular biology underlying the principles of molecular methods designed for diagnostic and prognostic applications. Examples of applications of molecular-based assays, along with case studies included in the text illustrate the use and interpretation of molecular assays in patient care. Students who are first learning about molecular-based assays will benefit from the explanation of fundamental principles in the first section of this text. Practitioners who are performing and interpreting molecular assays may find the second section a helpful resource for troubleshooting and implementing additional molecular-based assays in their laboratories as well as a general reference. The third section offers examples of applications of the fundamentals and methods described in the first two sections. New to this edition are expanded descriptions of human identification for application to parentage testing, chimerism analysis, ancestry testing, and genetic genealogy. This text is thus appropriate for those in a variety of health-related disciplines to assist in understanding the purpose and principles of the molecular diagnostic tests that they are ordering and applied to patient care"--