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Primers and Probes

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

Explain primers and probes at the level needed for assay specificity and detection literacy in clinical polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Intermediate8 min read15 sectionsMolecular Diagnostics
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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.

  • Describe primers as short nucleic acid sequences that select which target polymerase chain reaction (PCR) will copy
  • Describe probes as detection helpers that report when the selected target is amplified in many real-time assays
  • State that primer/probe design is assay-specific, the medical laboratory scientist (MLS) follows the validated kit or procedure rather than redesigning sequences

Section 1 of 15