Molecular Biology Section

Pulse-field Gel Electrophoresis Molecular Biology - Help June 11, 2015

The separation of enzyme-digested genomic DNA to generate an organism fingerprint, which is compared to local and national databases to identify strain information and identify potential outbreak clusters.

Sanger Sequencing Molecular Biology - Help June 11, 2015

The identification of bacterial and fungal organisms by ‘reading’ the DNA letter code and searching against a database library.

Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Molecular Biology - Help June 11, 2015

The targeting of specific DNA sequences of an organism using short primers and a labeled probe to find matching sequences in a sample and track the amplification of those matching sequences during each round of amplification by measuring the fluorescence of the probe.

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization - Time of Flight Molecular Biology - Help June 11, 2015

Pure, isolated organisms are placed on a specialized plate and vaporized with a laser. The laser causes proteins to disperse and pass through a vacuum tube to a detector within the instrument.

Pyrosequencing Molecular Biology - Help June 11, 2015

A short, single strand of DNA is sequenced as its complementary strand is synthesized. The release of pyrophosphates, which occurs during the addition of each base, begins a 3-step reaction which causes visible light to be released.

Instructions for Bordetella pertussis Samples Molecular Biology - Help February 22, 2012

These instructions explain how to collect a specimen of bordetella pertussis.