Why have alternative DNA/RNA methods for microbial identification failed in large scale commercialization?
Any organism, whether a tree, a human or a bacterium, can be definitively identified by accurately detecting a short segment of its DNA or RNA (the so-called target) that is unique to that organism. This data base is readily available in the public domain, and the general method theoretically offers a truly microbiological diagnosis as to whether or not the target identified is from a bacterium, a virus, a parasite or a fungus. Unfortunately this promise has not been realized to date in other than relatively few applications, with the reasons centering mainly on concerns regarding accuracy, cost, and utility. There are really only two generally accepted methods in molecular diagnostics: those based on DNA probes and those based on DNA sequencing (other novel approaches such as mass spectroscopy still have to be proven sufficiently accurate for clinical use). • DNA Probes In this method, a short string of nucleotides (a probe) is designed that is complementary to the short stretch of th
