Methods in Molecular Medicine Diagnosis of Genetic Diseases

This completely revised and updated second edition to integrates the many new technologies and insights now available for the diagnosis of genetic diseases. In this new edition, leading scientists actively engaged in providing clinical molecular genetic testing have completely revised and updated this highly praised work to include the many new technologies and insights now available for the diagnosis of genetic diseases. Now organized around generic technologies applied to disease-specific diagnosis, the authors use such methodologies as PCR optimization dosage analysis, mutation scanning, and quantitative fluorescent PCR for aneuploidy analysis, Neurofibromatosis type 1, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This new edition widens the range of specific diagnostic applications and includes such new topics as comparative sequence analysis and an overview of methods in mutation detection. The largely generic methodologies may be adapted to most genetic conditions for which a molecular diagnosis is relevant, no matter how frequent or rare their incidence. As in the first edition, each readily reproducible protocol contains step-by-step instructions, background information, equipment and reagent lists, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Up-to-date and highly practical, Molecular Diagnosis of Genetic Diseases, Second Edition integrates all the latest technologies with the now standard approaches of the first edition, and offers diagnostic molecular geneticists a unique opportunity to sharpen their scientific skills in the design of assays, their execution, and their interpretation.