New Single Use MALDI Biotarget™ Sample Plates

At the 21st Annual Meeting of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Bruker introduces single-use MALDI BiotargetTM sample plates for the mass spectrometry-based MALDI Biotyper workflow for microbial identification of a wide range of microbial species by means of specific proteomic fingerprints.

Due to its very fast result generation and superior analytical performance, in recent years MALDI Biotyper-based molecular identification has increasingly replaced classical biochemical identification in clinical microbiology laboratories. The MALDI Biotyper allows for microbial identification from pure cultures within a few minutes. It enables a broad and unbiased identification of more than 2,000 species of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, as well as yeasts. Currently, more than 250 MALDI Biotyper systems have been installed, mostly in clinical routine laboratories.

The MALDI Biotargets are a further addition to Bruker's product range for fast and cost-effective microbial identification. They complement Bruker's reusable steel target plates, and can, for example, be used in laboratory networks that have a central core facility equipped with a Bruker MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer. In this use case, the samples can be prepared in satellite microbiology laboratories and can be sent to the central core laboratory for species analysis. The results can then be reviewed via a local MALDI Biotyper software client for the final approval of the identification by the microbiologist.

Conveniently, the MALDI Biotargets make target cleaning procedures unnecessary, and they reduce the need for chemical handling in laboratories. Via their barcode-label, the MALDI Biotargets enable sample tracking of the microbial isolates. The MALDI Biotargets are suitable for the preparation of up to 48 microbial isolates, and MALDI Biotargets are currently for research-use-only.

An additional, proprietary reusable steel BigAnchorChipTM target plate is the best choice for workflows coming from liquid phase, like in the rapid detection of salmonella after pre-enrichment from stool samples.

Dr. Ulrich Weller of Laboratory Boogen in Cologne, Germany, stated: 'Our laboratory has done most of our microbial routine identification work with the MALDI Biotyper in the last few years. Now we have extensively studied and validated the new consumable MALDI Biotargets in comparison to Bruker's reusable steel targets. The MALDI Biotargets have shown the same excellent performance, and make handling even more convenient. Moreover, they allow us to send prepared samples for measurements in partner laboratories.'

Dr. Wolfgang Pusch, Vice President for Clinical Research Solutions & IVD at Bruker Daltonics, added: 'We are very pleased to introduce the MALDI Biotargets for our customers in microbiology to ensure high quality sample preparation to achieve the best results for new workflows in microbiology. Our reusable steel targets are the basic sample preparation plates for standard workflows. The new MALDI Biotargets now allow for a further reduction in workload and chemical handling by our customers.'