The clinical application of time-of-flight mass spectrometry in nucleic acid detection

As a high-throughput, sensitive, accurate and convenient detection technology, matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) has been widely used in molecular diagnosis and research of various diseases. The in-depth application is outstanding, particularly in pharmacogenomics, tumor susceptibility gene detection, DNA methylation detection, diagnosis of hereditary diseases, genotyping and drug-resistance detection of bacteria and virus. MALDI-TOF has become an indispensable molecular diagnostic technology for precision medicine. Key words: Spectrometry; Mass; Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization(MALDI); Gene polymorphism; DNA methylation