Instrumental improvements and sample preparations that enable reproducible, reliable acquisition of mass spectra from whole bacterial cells.

Rationale: Rapid sub-species characterization of pathogens is required for timely responses in outbreak situations. Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PyMS) has the potential to be used for this purpose.

Methods: However, in order to make PyMS practical for traceback applications, certain improvements related to spectrum reproducibility and data acquisition speed were required.

An integrated flow cytometry-based system for real-time, high sensitivity bacterial detection and identification.

Foodborne illnesses occur in both industrialized and developing countries, and may be increasing due to rapidly evolving food production practices. Yet some primary tools used to assess food safety are decades, if not centuries, old. To improve the time to result for food safety assessment a sensitive flow cytometer based system to detect microbial contamination was developed.