Diagnostic molecular microbiology. Current challenges and future directions.

The advent of nucleic acid amplification techniques for the clinical laboratory provides not only new diagnostic opportunities but new responsibilities as well. Problems associated with the introduction of this technology include contamination with the products of amplification reactions, and difficulty in interpreting test results. Eventually, however, many of these problems will be overcome, and new applications of diagnostic molecular microbiology such as sequence-based microbial identification will become established. Clinical microbiologists will successfully negotiate the transition to tests based on nucleic acid chemistry if they are willing to educate and become educated in the new technology.