Recombinant DNA technology and laboratory medicine.

Recombinant DNA technology has already had a major impact on our understanding of microbiology, cell biology, and genetic diseases and it will certainly have extensive applications in laboratory medicine. The techniques of restriction endonuclease analysis of DNA, nucleic acid hybridization after electrophoretic separation of nucleic acid fragments, and molecular cloning of bacterial, viral, and human genes are already being used in epidemiologic studies and the prenatal diagnosis of certain genetic diseases, such as sickle cell anemia and the thalassemias. New insights into genes that may be involved in human cancer are being developed and may lead to improved methods for diagnosis and classification of tumors.