The course provides an actual overview, advantages and pittfalls of the general principles of state-of-the-art molecular techniques in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. Basic features of e.g. NGS as well as advanced features e.g. real-time PCR will be addressed in relation to their diagnostic importance and usefulness. In addition, interactive discussions on clinical interpretation and application will be held in several specific simultaneous workshops for which participants will be able to register. Each workshop has a limited number of participants. During the workshops specific subjects will be addressed based on case reports. This will be presented by moderators who will integrate an active role of the audience. In addition, experts in these subjects will comment and, when necessary, add in depth knowledge on the subject and/or questions from the participants.

Finally, additional important general subjects like (low resource) MDx laboratory setup, outbreak upscaling, validation and quality control of the different techniques are presented including future perspectives in the field.