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Molecular diagnostics is a technique used to analyse biological markers in the genome and proteomethe individual's genetic code and how their cells express their genes as proteinsby applying molecular biology to medical testing. The technique is used to diagnose and monitor disease, detect risk, and decide which therapies will work best for individual patients.〔 By analysing the specifics of the patient and their disease, molecular diagnostics offers the prospect of personalised medicine. These tests are useful in a range of medical specialisms, including infectious disease, oncology, human leukocyte antigen typing (which investigates and predicts immune function), coagulation, and pharmacogenomicsthe genetic prediction of which drugs will work best. They overlap with clinical chemistry (medical tests on bodily fluids). ==History== The field of molecular biology grew in the late twentieth century, as did its clinical application. In 1980, Yuet Wai Kan ''et al''. suggested a prenatal genetic test for Thalassemia that did not rely upon DNA sequencingthen in its infancybut on restriction enzymes that cut DNA where they recognised specific short sequences, creating different lengths of DNA strand depending on which allele (genetic variation) the fetus possessed. In the 1980s, the phrase was used in the names of companies such as''Molecular Diagnostics Incorporated'' and ''Bethseda Research Laboraties Molecular Diagnostics''. During the 1990s, the identification of newly discovered genes and new techniques for DNA sequencing led to the appearance of a distinct field of molecular and genomic laboratory medicine; in 1995, the ''Association for Molecular Pathology''(AMP) was formed to give it structure. In 1999, the AMP co-founded ''The Journal of Medical Diagnostics''. Informa Healthcare launched ''Expert Reviews in Medical Diagnostics'' in 2001. From 2002 onwards, the HapMap Project aggregated information on the one-letter genetic differences that recur in the human populationthe single nucleotide polymorphismsand their relationship with disease.〔 In 2012, molecular diagnostic techniques for Thalassemia use genetic hybridization tests to identify the specific single nucleotide polymorphism causing an individual's disease. As the commercial application of molecular diagnostics has become more important, so has the debate about patenting of the genetic discoveries at its heart. In 1998, the European Union's Directive 98/44/ECclarified that patents on DNA sequences were allowable. In 2010 in the US, AMP sued Myriad Genetics to challenge the latter's patents regarding two genes, BRCA1, BRCA2, which are associated with breast cancer. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court partially agreed, ruling that a naturally occurring gene sequence could not be patented. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「molecular diagnostics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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