Short Course Description

Molecular Diagnostic Automation

From Nucleic acid extraction to Realtime PCR, CEquencing and Microarrays, review most of automated platforms and solutions available for molecular diagnostic.

Who Should Attend

Anyone seeking to improve throughput and automation levels of molecular testing, or wanting to have an overview on solutions for Nucleic Acid Testing automation.

How You'll Benefit From This Course

• Understand why automation is necessary in molecular diagnostics
• Overview of the existing solutions for automation of molecular testing
• Appreciate the strategy and technical features of recent molecular products from major diagnostic companies
• Develop an automation project for a molecular testing core facility
• Learn about current and future automation technologies used for molecular testing

Course Topics

• Automation of Nucleic Acid Extraction (From Genomic DNA to Viral RNA)
• Automation of PCR Assays (From PCR to Real-Time PCR)
• Automation of Detection technologies (From Hybridization to NextGen Sequencing)
• Automation of Home Brew Molecular Testing
• Molecular Diagnostic Companies Automation Projects and Directions
• Future Technologies and Automation Concerns

Course Fee: US $500/$600*

Course Format: Lecture

Class Limit: 40

Instructor:

Patrick Merel, Ph.D. Plateforme Technologique d'Innovation Biomédicale Hopital Xavier Arnozan

Patrick Merel got his Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1986 in Bordeaux University. At that time he was already involved in the design of diagnostic procedures, for plants Viroids detection by molecular hybridization.

He started his career by developing molecular diagnostic in the Blood Bank Center of Bordeaux in 1987. He has been involved rapidly in robotics for molecular diagnostic in immunology and hematology as soon as PCR procedures started to be available. In 1996 he was among the first to publish a magnetic procedure for nucleic acid extraction on a robotic workstation.

He has been involved in high-throughput projects for infectious disease screening, sequence based monitoring for HIV drug resistance, and real-time quantitative assays development in developing countries.

His involvement in emerging technologies allowed him to publish the 1st French review on DNA Chips back in 1994 and the 1st French overview of Lab-on-a-Chip technology in 1999.

Patrick is now working at the Virology Department of Bordeaux University Hospital, where he is involved in the setup of a new molecular diagnostic core facility in conjunction with a fully automated central laboratory for clinical chemistry.

Between 2004 and 2005, Patrick Merel had joined Beckman Coulter Inc. for a sabbatical year, to focus on Molecular Diagnostic Automation from the industrial side. A unique situation which has gave him a global vision from the world of the industry and the world of the end-users.

* higher fee applies to those who are not ALA members