Microbiological identification by routine use of MALDITOF

Abstract number: S224

Drancourt M.

The analysis of bacterial protein profile obtained after matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) emerged over the past years as a new method for the accurate identification of bacterial isolates. MALDI-TOD-MS protein profiling can be achieved within muinutes thus speeding the identification; it is a cheap technology including the decreasing cost for mass spectrometers; protein profiles and issued identifications are reproducible and robust; and new generation mass spectrometers are smaller machines easily implanted within the laboratory. All these parameters make MALDI-TOF MS the technology to be introduced in any modern microbiology laboratory, including the point-of-care laboratory.

Databases, the crucial part of the process, now comprise of most of the bacterial species routinely encountered in the microbiology laboratory. Despite the fact that some Gram-positive organisms remain "MALDI-TOF resistant" in part because of underlying taxonomic weaknesses and in part because of database weaknesses, MALDI-TOF is definitely the first line method for the routine identification of bacterial isolates in the 21 century, pushing biochemical profiling and even the gram staining off the laboratory towards the museum of bacteriology.