Clinical microbiology in detection and identification of emerging microbial pathogens: past, present and future

ABSTRACT

Clinical microbiology has possessed a marvellous past, an important present and a bright future. Western medicine modernization started with the discovery of bacterial pathogens, and from then, clinical bacteriology became a cornerstone of diagnostics. Today, clinical microbiology uses standard techniques including Gram stain morphology, in vitro culture, antigen and antibody assays, and molecular biology both to establish a diagnosis and monitor the progression of microbial infections. Clinical microbiology has played a critical role in pathogen detection and characterization for emerging infectious diseases as evidenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Revolutionary changes are on the way in clinical microbiology with the application of “-omic” techniques, including transcriptomics and metabolomics, and optimization of clinical practice configurations to improve outcomes of patients with infectious diseases.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical microbiology
• nucleic acid amplification
• genomics
• transcriptomics
• proteomics
• metabolomics
• point of care
• COVID-19

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Monica Wang, Yongzhong Ning and Jingwen Ai for their assistance and Charles Stratton and Sherry Dunbar for their constructive discussion and critical reviewing the manuscript. The Xpert MTB® MTB Finger Stick Prototype is a product in development, which is not for use in diagnostic procedures and not reviewed by any regulatory body.

Disclosure statement

Y.-W.T. is an employee of Cepheid, the commercial manufacturer of the GeneXpert system and Xpert cartridges. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the rest authors.