Diagnostics in the Year 2000: Antibody, Biosensor, and Nucleic Acid Technologies

Nowhere has the impact of science and technology on the practice of modern medicine been greater than in diagnosis that provides a rational basis for treatment. Tests for substances of diagnostic importance that only 10 years ago were barely known about are now available at the touch of a switch or the drop of blood.

This revolution has come mainly through the industrialisation of the diagnostics industry, which began some 30 years or so ago with the introduction of mechanisation and prepacked chemical reagents. The incorporation …