Molecular and Genetic Analyses

Molecular and genetic testing is becoming more relevant and the technology is becoming simpler every day. This is a rapidly growing field in laboratory studies. The most common molecular tests performed by hospital laboratories are those for infectious diseases such as influenza, COVID-19 and human papilloma virus (HPV). Some laboratories have molecular-type analyzers that can perform an analysis for several infectious diseases on just one small swab. These types of molecular analyses are changing the way patients are being treated for infectious diseases. Molecular and genetic tests can be so complex and specialized that only large university-based laboratories perform them. For example, those patients suspected of having a bone marrow type cancer such as acute leukemia will usually have their bone marrow collected at a local hospital laboratory but the specialized molecular and genetic testing on the bone marrow will be sent to be analyzed at a university. There are certain cancers like those involving the bone marrow in which the diagnosis relies heavily on the results of molecular studies.