bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, is pleased to announce it has joined with Ultimate Labs, a leader in the safe production and quality control of food, drugs, and medical devices, to provide the industry with VITEK® MS - the most rapid mass spectrometry method available to detect microbial pathogens in food and pharmaceutical production.
VITEK MS, uses MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry technology to identify bacteria, yeast, and mold, offering significant time savings with respect to traditional identification methods. It is also extremely sensitive, providing a standard of accuracy above many of the current state-of-the art techniques.
“We are extremely pleased to bring this state-of-the-art technology to our customers,” said Kim Lim, CEO of Ultimate Labs. “Our clients adhere to strict safety and quality control regulations issued by governmental agencies such as the USDA and the FDA, and have to be compliant with industry standards. Also, they are eager to identify potential contaminants faster and to increase the sensitivity of their testing. The quantitative protein profiling provided by VITEK MS allows a greatly improved accuracy and time-to-results for our customers," Ms. Lim added. "For our clients where results impact products with short shelf-lives, the faster we can get results to them, the better.”
Bacterial and mold identification are crucial to confirm contaminations and to guide corrective actions in the production of consumable products made by pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food manufacturers. With 50 years of experience in microbial identification, bioMérieux is the only microbiology company offering a mass spectrometry solution for industry needs. VITEK MS provides fast, flexible, and robust results, and can provide an identification of a microorganism’s genus and species in just a few minutes. As the world leader in microbiology, bioMérieux pairs VITEK MS system with the most comprehensive microbial database in the business.
“Reference laboratories today are striving to improve productivity and shorten their time-to-results,” said Pierre-Louis Thiney, Executive Director US Industry for bioMérieux. “Providing a fully integrated, rapid solution for microbial identification is a significant step in providing timely and accurate results to the customer.”
VITEK MS is available for industrial use and has been submitted for marketing clearance to the FDA for the clinical market.
About MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry
In the MALDI-TOF* process, the sample to be analyzed is mixed with another compound, called a matrix. The mixture is applied to a target slide, placed inside the instrument, and irradiated with a laser. The matrix absorbs the laser light and vaporizes, along with the sample, in the process gaining an electrical charge (ionization).
Electric fields then guide the ions into the flight tube, which separates them according to ‘weight’ (mass) and displays the results as a series of lines (spectrum) which correspond to different fragments that have broken away from the original molecule. By analyzing the pattern of fragments, it is possible to deduce the structure of the molecule.
VITEK MS takes this further by comparing the sample spectrum to an extensive database of spectra from bacterial species to allow the system to accurately identify the microorganism in question.
*Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight