Since loop-mediated isothermal amplifi cation (LAMP)
was originally reported by Notomi et al. in 2000,11 LAMP
has attracted a lot of attention as a potentially rapid,
accurate, and cost-effective novel nucleic acid amplifi cation
method. As a result, more than 180 reports evaluating the
LAMP method have now been published in many publications,
including this journal.12 The LAMP method has now
been developed as commercial kits and some of them have
been adopted as the offi cially recommended methods for
the routine identifi cation and surveillance of pathogens in
Japan. As such, the LAMP method must be recognized as
an established nucleic acid amplifi cation method for NAT.
In this article, we review the history of LAMP development
for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases. The current
directions of development as well as the future prospects of
LAMP are also discussed.