Mass Spectometry for Bacterial Identification

Identifying bacterial species is a long and arduous process.  A technique has been recently developed to allow microbiologists to identify certain strains of bacteria by utilizing protein mass spectra patterns.  Each type of bacterium creates their own pattern of proteins recognizable using mass spectra and relationship algorithms. Mass spectra has been used for the past fifty years, however it wasn't until 2002 when a Nobel Prize winning soft ionization technique called Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization that large molecules could be analyzed without being fragmented.  Clinicians now have the capability of prescribing the right bacterial treatments within minutes as opposed to days.  This article interested me, because as biomedical engineers it is important to keep up with the latest innovations and this particular innovation won 3rd place in the Cleveland Clinic top ten medical innovations of 2013 competition.

"A typical mass spectrum of a bacterial sample taken from necrotic wood compared with a matching spectrum from the reference library. (Top) Original mass spectra, (Middle) respective pseudo gel-view showing a bar-code of masses and their intensities, (Bottom) identification by comparison of experimental and reference mass spectra using a pattern matching algorithm. In this example, a highly reliable identification score of 2.7 was obtained from the identification of E. amylovora (CFBP1232)."

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002843

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQwMsyEdITI&feature=youtu.be