As the Human Genome Project is generating an avalanche of genetic information, molecular researchers and clinical practitioners are setting new criteria for evaluation of the links between newly discovered gene mutations and human disorders. These requirements necessitate the development of highly accurate and yet rapid automated systems for genetic testing. We describe the detection of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on the human Y chromosome with the fully automated, sensitive, and rapid system WAVE designed for DNA fragment analysis. This new technology, based on temperature-modulated liquid chromatography and a high-resolution matrix, offers new dimensions to the molecular biology research. The versatility of the WAVE makes the equipment a universal molecular biology stations for clinical and research facilities. The key aspects to setting the operating parameters are discussed.

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This is a review of relevant Raman spectroscopy (RS) techniques and their use in structural biology, biophysics, cells, and tissues imaging towards development of various medical diagnostic tools, drug design, and other medical applications. Classical and contemporary structural studies of different water-soluble and membrane proteins, DNA, RNA, and their interactions and behavior in different systems were analyzed in terms of applicability of RS techniques and their complementarity to other corresponding methods. We show that RS is a powerful method that links the fundamental structural biology and its medical applications in cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, atherosclerotic, and other diseases. In particular, the key roles of RS in modern technologies of structure-based drug design are the detection and imaging of membrane protein microcrystals with the help of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), which would help to further the development of protein structural crystallography and would result in a number of novel high-resolution structures of membrane proteins—drug targets; and, structural studies of photoactive membrane proteins (rhodopsins, photoreceptors, etc.) for the development of new optogenetic tools. Physical background and biomedical applications of spontaneous, stimulated, resonant, and surface- and tip-enhanced RS are also discussed. All of these techniques have been extensively developed during recent several decades. A number of interesting applications of CARS, resonant, and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy methods are also discussed.

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