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At a glance

Part A — Units

1. Nucleic acids, microbial genomes and pathogen variation
2. Laboratory organisation, biosafety and contamination control
3. Specimens and pre-analytical factors
4. Nucleic acid extraction
5. PCR and RT-PCR principles
6. Real-time PCR: detection, quantification, interpretation
7. Viral load testing in clinical practice
8. Syndromic panels, point-of-care testing and digital PCR
9. Amplification methods beyond PCR, LAMP and CRISPR
10. Molecular detection of antimicrobial resistance
11. Sequencing technologies
12. Pathogen bioinformatics
13. Clinical metagenomics and 16S/ITS sequencing
14. Genomic epidemiology and outbreak investigation
15. Molecular mycology and parasitology
16. Molecular immunology (HLA, chimerism, TREC/KREC)
17. Quality, verification and validation
18. Reporting and interpretation

Plus exercises, case studies, self-assessment questions, a glossary, and Part B: a self-study reading list of free, open-access papers, guidelines, courses and tools mapped to each unit.

Licence and use

© 2026 Saranga Sumathipala. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt it for any purpose with appropriate credit.

Suggested citation: Sumathipala S. Molecular Diagnostics in Infection and Immunology: A Learning Resource. 1st ed. 2026. Open access, CC BY 4.0.

Prepared with the assistance of an AI tool (Claude, Anthropic) for drafting, figures and reference checking; the author directed the work and is responsible for it. For education only — check current guidelines and local protocols before clinical or laboratory use.