The Molecular Pathology facilities provide a resource for the entire Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute. Molecular Microbiology, Molecular Genetic Pathology, Molecular Oncologic Pathology and Molecular/Dermatopathology laboratories are located within this department.
Clinical activities in the Department of Molecular Pathology include the molecular diagnosis of inherited genetic abnormalities, hematologic and solid tumor malignancies, clinical pharmacogenomics, monitoring of engraftment in patients who have undergone bone marrow transplants, and the diagnosis and monitoring of a variety of viral, fungal, and bacterial infectious agents including therapy-related genotyping.
More than 75,000 diagnostic molecular assays are performed annually. The laboratories play a major role in national molecular pathology quality assurance programs in collaboration with the College of American Pathologists.
The Molecular Pathology laboratories also function as core facilities for translational molecular research programs and the extraction and storage of DNA and RNA for multiple investigators throughout Cleveland Clinic. For example, DNA is being extracted and stored from ~10,000 samples for Molecular Cardiology Research Programs. Multiple active clinical research programs span a variety of molecular pathology disciplines.
The Molecular Pathology laboratories employ clinical medical technologists, research technologists, molecular pathology research fellows, and Project Staff Faculty. The major techniques in use are gel-based and real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), hybrid capture, reverse blot hybridization, chemiluminescent Southern Blot analysis, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH), gold enhanced autometallographic in situ hybridization (GOLDFISH), peptide nucleic acid (PNA) FISH, and array-based comparative genomic hybridization (A-CGH).
Our laboratories utilize state-of-the-art technology, including real time PCR LightCyclers®, a SmartCycler®, a Rotor-Gene™, an EasyQ®, and automated nucleic acid extractors, ABI/CE 310 and 3100 Genetic Sequencing Analyzers, a Pyrosequencer®, Benchmark® and Discovery™ automated ISH stainers, interphase FISH scanning and imaging systems, laser capture microdissection and tissue microarray workstations, Arial bright field image analysis, and gene expression and BAC array-based comparative genomic hybridization workstations.
