New solutions to old problems: A practical approach to identify samples with intravenous fluid contamination in clinical laboratories.

Objectives: Contamination with intravenous (IV) fluids is a common cause of specimen rejection or erroneous results in hospitalized patients. Identification of contaminated samples can be difficult. Common measures such as failed delta checks may not be adequately sensitive nor specific.

Ex vivo hemolysis: Three cases demonstrating mechanically-induced hemolysis from the extracorporeal circuit during hemodialysis.

Sporadic mechanically-induced hemolysis associated with kinks in extracorporeal blood circuits during hemodialysis is a rare but potentially serious complication that exhibits laboratory features consistent with both in vivo and in vitro hemolysis. Misclassification of clinically significant hemolysis as in vitro can lead to inappropriate test cancellation and delayed medical interventions. Here, we report three cases of hemolysis attributed to kinked hemodialysis blood lines, which we have defined as "ex vivo" hemolysis.

CRISPR technology incorporating amplification strategies: molecular assays for nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules.

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein systems have transformed the field of genome editing and transcriptional modulation. Progress in CRISPR-Cas technology has also advanced molecular detection of diverse targets, ranging from nucleic acids to proteins. Incorporating CRISPR-Cas systems with various nucleic acid amplification strategies enables the generation of amplified detection signals, enrichment of low-abundance molecular targets, improvements in analytical specificity and sensitivity, and development of point-of-care (POC) diagnostic techniques.

Molecular Diagnosis of COVID-19: Challenges and Research Needs.

Molecular diagnosis of COVID-19 primarily relies on the detection of RNA of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative infectious agent of the pandemic. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) enables sensitive detection of specific sequences of genes that encode the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP), nucleocapsid (N), envelope (E), and spike (S) proteins of the virus. Although RT-PCR tests have been widely used and many alternative assays have been developed, the current testing capacity and availability cannot meet the unprecedented global demands for rapid, reliable, and widely accessible molecular diagnosis.

Beacon-mediated exponential amplification reaction (BEAR) using a single enzyme and primer.

Beacon-mediated Exponential Amplification Reaction (BEAR) enables isothermal, exponential signal amplification. BEAR uses only a single enzyme and a single primer. Detection of 0.

The Effects of SELEX Conditions on the Resultant Aptamer Pools in the Selection of Aptamers Binding to Bacterial Cells.

Aptamers of high affinity and specificity have a wide range of analytic and clinical applications. Selection of DNA or RNA aptamer molecules usually involves systematic evolution of ligands via exponential enrichment (SELEX), in which a random DNA or RNA library is incubated with a target molecule, and the oligonucleotides that bind the target are then separated from the nonbinders, PCR amplified, and used as refined libraries in the next round of selection. Conventional SELEX methodologies require the use of purified target molecules and their immobilization onto a solid support.