Richard R. Drake, Sarah R. Boggs and Steven K. Drake
Numerous microbes pose a significant threat in many environments, particularly so in the clinical setting where the most vulnerable patients are at high risk of infection. It is of prime importance to rapidly and accurately identify the responsible bacterial strains to appropriately disinfect contaminated areas and treat infected patients with upmost efficacy. In this regard, the recent development of mass spectrometry approaches for microbial identification has initiated a revolution in clinical microbiology laboratories. In this perspective article, Richard Drake and colleagues describe state-of-the-art mass spectrometry-based methodologies and instrumentation for microbial identification and give a perspective on future developments in the field. Richard Drake (Ph.D.) is newly appointed Professor and head of the Proteomic Center at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, SC).
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