The Impact of New Cloning Techniques on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases

Abstract

THE techniques of DNA and antibody cloning developed during the past decade are now being used successfully to solve a variety of clinical problems. Within the field of infectious diseases, practitioners can expect improved diagnostic tests and new therapeutic and preventive interventions. These advances in clinical methods are possible because defined macromolecules with specified functions can be constructed or isolated by cloning. In conceptual terms, cloning involves the separation and independent propagation of a specific element from a population of similar elements. In the case of gene cloning, a particular sequence of DNA is separated and propagated independently from an . . .