Emerging genetic technologies in clinical and research settings.

With the rapid expansion of genomic health care, nurses are exposed to emerging genetic technologies in a wide variety of clinical and research settings; however, nurses have limited knowledge about these technologies. The polymerase chain reaction procedure, which is the foundation of current molecular genetic technologies, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and microarray analysis are described in this article. The applications, strengths, and limitations of each technology are discussed.