Adnavance: Better genetic diagnostics through electricity
(NOTE: This item originally appeared in today’s daily briefing. It’s been expanded and rewritten here.)
DNA-based diagnostics face a fundamental, though hardly insuperable, obstacle: When you’re looking for a rare mutation or other identifying sequence of DNA “letters” (technically known as bases or nucleotides), there are rarely enough matching DNA molecules in your average blood or tissue sample for today’s technology to detect. So many such tests first require technicians to “amplify” DNA in the sample, usually… Continue Reading