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Principles of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

This Medical Laboratory Science lesson in Molecular Diagnostics supports laboratory science learning and laboratory interpretation for medical laboratory students and professionals.

How clinical PCR copies a selected nucleic acid target so it can be detected, and why workflow order and assay validation govern interpretation.

Intermediate8 min read15 sectionsMolecular Diagnostics
Section 1 of 150%

Learning Objectives

Getting started

Section 1 of 15

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

Section: Learning Objectives

Each objective is a clinical PCR skill for medical laboratory scientists, not advanced biochemistry.

  • Define polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as copying a selected nucleic acid target so it can be detected
  • Place PCR within the clinical molecular workflow from specimen through reporting
  • State why interpretation must follow the validated assay and laboratory procedure, not informal rules of thumb

Section 1 of 15