Molecular Diagnostic Research

Molecular techniques such as polymerase chain reactions (PCR/RT-PCR) revolutionized the diagnosis of infectious diseases and provided fundamental insights with regard to epidemiology and clinical presentation. PCR-based diagnosis is rapid, specific, sensitive and is often used to diagnose infections pathogens especially those difficult to grow in culture. IDC transform its basic research to applied diagnostic medicine. Through our infectomic research, we identified biomarker such as ncRNAs gene, metabolomes, nuclei acid aptamer and peptides that could act as molecular diagnostic targets. We further developed, optimised and performed in-house molecular diagnostic tests for the detection and identification infectious pathogens. Current pipeline of molecular diagnostic at IDC are:

- Nucleic acid amplification test for the identification of M. tuberculosis complex

- Gel-based PCR for the detection and differentiation of salmonellosis

- Gel-based and real-time PCR diagnostic test for the detection of leptospiralsis

- Rapid serodiagnosis of melioidosis - an immunodot test