A THOMASIAN medical technologist has called on medical experts to foster molecular diagnostics in the Philippines, as it would provide “more accurate and safer ways” of treating diseases.
Geraldine Dayrit, a professor of molecular biology, said advancing molecular diagnostics would assure a high level of reliability and speed in detecting cancer, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease and diabetes.
“Many of the conventional methods used today produce unreliable and slow test results—they produce numerous errors. A reliable [molecular] diagnostics is essential because inaccurate [methods] can be a matter of life and death,” Dayrit said in the 24th Fr. Lorenzo Rodriguez, O.P. Memorial Lecture.
Molecular diagnostics is a group of methods used for the study of an individual’s genetic code found in cells, and detecting abnormalities in the body.
Polymerase chain reaction, a method of molecular diagnostics, is often used to identify a disease-causing genetic code reproduced by a virus inside a body, making it easier for physicians to know the proper treatment needed, she explained.
“[We] must make more in-depth molecular studies, [and] apply for different scholarly programs abroad having more accessibility to [molecular diagnostics] techniques and equipment,” she told the Varsitarian.
The 24th Fr. Lorenzo Rodriguez, O.P. Memorial Lecture was held at the Central Laboratory Auditorium last Feb. 13.
