Is Southern blotting still used in research today?

Yes, Southern blotting is still used in research today. In molecular diagnostic labs, Southern blot hybridization (SBH) is often used for analyzing significant alterations in genomic DNA at a relatively large scale, typically involving kilobases of DNA. For example, it is a valuable technique for analyzing immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor loci in leukemia and lymphoma cases. This makes it ideal for clinical applications where DNA amplification is challenging due to locus complexity or sequence variations. Even with the introduction of novel techniques like PCR, NGS, and DNA microarrays, the number of citations for Southern blots has returned to a level similar to that of the 1980s.