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

2022; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/22221751.2022.2125345

2222-1751

Hui Wang, Wenhong Zhang, Yi‐Wei Tang,

Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research

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.