ABSTRACT
Molecular methods, once only research tools, have permeated to some degree every area of the clinical microbiology laboratory. Assays approved by the US Food and Drug Administration are available to detect fastidious organisms like Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis, commonly encountered, easily cultivated bacteria such as Group B Streptococcus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The chapter examines the molecular diagnostics in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Microarrays have served the scientific community well with regard to gene discovery and studies of genetic expression. These devices detect a large number of signals simultaneously, and may be used to detect deoxyribonucleic acid or ribonucleic acid. Molecular epidemiologic tools are important and useful tools for hospital epidemiologists. The premier epidemiologists use such tools in conjunction with traditional epidemiologic methods to characterize and curtail epidemics that may occur on a large scale, such as food-borne epidemics that affect an entire nation, or are localized, such as epidemics occurring in a single intensive care unit.
