Students are able to apply various nucleic acid amplification and detection (NAT) techniques and sequencing technologies to diagnose resistance patterns in infection diagnostics / monitoring, hereditary diseases and other genetic disorders as well as pathogen identification. This includes a detailed overview of the most important methods in molecular diagnostics of e.g. hereditary diseases, tumors and infectious diseases. Particular attention is paid to the detection and elimination of possible sources of error as well as to the evaluation and interpretation of laboratory results. The students are able to independently evaluate examination materials and validate the results of their molecular biological analysis technically and biomedically. In addition, students can use information technology for subject-specific data research, adapt new examination procedures based on work instructions or literatures and implement or carry out new tasks with the help of scientific articles. They know about the need to track current developments and to integrate them into their work.

Modules of the 1st and 2nd semester

• Preanalytics in molecular biology / molecular medicine
• Special applications in molecular diagnostics including validation and interpretation of results
• Importance of molecular biological methods for accurate and rapid diagnosis of molecular-medical relevant diseases
• Evaluation of sequencing results
• Practical analysis by applying various molecular biological diagnostic methods (e.g., MRSA typing, ESBL resistance pattern, Factor V Leiden diagnostics, etc.)
• Restriction enzyme digestion (RFLP) theory, hybridization techniques and sample labeling, blotting, cloning, microarray techniques, proteomics and other "omics" technologies
• Postanalytics of the results using common internet platforms as well as the annotation of sequences and description of their quality
• Technical and biomedical validation of the test results
• Interpretation and correction of errors
• Aspects of quality assurance, biological safety and hygiene, act on genetic engineering and subject-specific guidelines, documentation

Mülhardt C. (2013), Der Experimentator Molekularbiologie / Genomics, Spektrum;
Schartl M. et al. (2009), Biochemie und Molekularbiologie des Menschen, Thieme;
Alberts B. et al. (2017), Molekularbiologie der Zelle, Wiley-VCH Verlag;
Jacobi B. & Partovi S. (2010), Molekulare Zellbiologie - Basics, Elsevier;
Reinard T. (2018), Molekularbiologische Methoden 2.0, UTB;
Jansohn M. & Rothhämel S. (2011), Gentechnische Methoden: Eine Sammlung von Arbeitsanleitungen für das molekularbiologische Labor, Spektrum;
Books, journals and websites according to the current state of knowledge in the respective fields.

Lectures, laboratory exercises, reflections, discussions

Module examination