Molecular pathology is an emerging discipline within pathology which is focused in the study and diagnosis of disease through the examination of molecules within organs, tissues or bodily fluids. Molecular pathology shares some aspects of practice with both anatomic pathology and clinical pathology, molecular biology, biochemistry, proteomics and genetics, and is sometimes considered a "crossover" discipline.
It is multi-disciplinary in nature and focuses mainly on the sub-microscopic aspects of disease. A key consideration is that more accurate diagnosis is possible when the diagnosis is based on both the morphologic changes in tissues (traditional anatomic pathology) and on molecular testing.
It is a scientific discipline that encompasses the development of molecular and genetic approaches to the diagnosis and classification of human diseases, the design and validation of predictive biomarkers for treatment response and disease progression, the susceptibility of individuals of different genetic constitution to develop disorders.
Molecular pathology is commonly used in diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases. Techniques are numerous but include quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), multiplex PCR, DNA microarray, in situ hybridization, in situ RNA sequencing, DNA sequencing, antibody based immunofluorescence tissue assays, molecular profiling of pathogens, and analysis of bacterial genes for antimicrobial resistance.
Integration of "molecular pathology" and "epidemiology" led to an interdisciplinary field, termed "molecular pathological epidemiology" (MPE), which represents integrative molecular biology and population health science.
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Molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE, also molecular pathologic epidemiology) is a discipline combining epidemiology and pathology. It is defined as "epidemiology of molecular pathology and heterogeneity of disease". Pathology and epidemiology share the same goal of elucidating etiology of disease, and MPE aims to achieve this goal at molecular, individual and population levels. Typically, MPE utilizes tissue pathology resources and data within existing epidemiology studies.
Molecular diagnostics is a collection of techniques used to analyze biological markers in the genome and proteome, and how their cells express their genes as proteins, applying molecular biology to medical testing. In medicine the technique is used to diagnose and monitor disease, detect risk, and decide which therapies will work best for individual patients, and in agricultural biosecurity similarly to monitor crop- and livestock disease, estimate risk, and decide what quarantine measures must be taken.
Molecular medicine is a broad field, where physical, chemical, biological, bioinformatics and medical techniques are used to describe molecular structures and mechanisms, identify fundamental molecular and genetic errors of disease, and to develop molecular interventions to correct them. The molecular medicine perspective emphasizes cellular and molecular phenomena and interventions rather than the previous conceptual and observational focus on patients and their organs.
The severe social and economic burden of stroke is a strong motivation for the exploration of innovative medical approaches. In this context, magnetic resonance (MR) of hyperpolarized (HP) molecular agents via dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (dDNP ...
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been the most significant driver in the field of nucleic acid testing (NAT) since its invention. Popularized as an abbreviation by the Covid-19 pandemic, PCR-based methods are the gold standard in the field of diagnostic ...
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Human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelial cells (hESC-RPE) are a promising cell source to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Despite several ongoing clinical studies, a detailed mapping of transient cellular states during in v ...