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Review
. 2017 Nov;55(11):3175-3182.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.01155-17. Epub 2017 Aug 23.

Towards a Universal Molecular Microbiological Test

Richard J N Allcock  1   2 , Amy V Jennison  3 , David Warrilow  4
Affiliations
Review

Towards a Universal Molecular Microbiological Test

Richard J N Allcock et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

The standard paradigm for microbiological testing is dependent on the presentation of a patient to a clinician. Tests are then requested based on differential diagnoses using the patient's symptoms as a guide. The era of high-throughput genomic methods has the potential to replace this model for the first time with what could be referred to as "hypothesis-free testing." This approach utilizes one of a variety of methodologies to obtain a sequence from potentially any nucleic acid in a clinical sample, without prior knowledge of its content. We discuss the advantages of such an approach and the challenges in making this a reality.

Keywords: bacteriology; bioinformatics; diagnostics; genome analysis; high-throughput sequencing; hypothesis-free testing; next-generation sequencing; personalized medicine; virology.

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