MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry: transformative proteomics for clinical microbiology. Clin Chem 2013;59:340–2

Clinical microbiology laboratories today operate with the use of a blend of high- and low-technology proce-dures. Despite huge steps forward in diagnostic meth-ods based on nucleic acid amplification, clinicalmicro-biology laboratories still rely heavily on culturing bacteria and fungi for diagnostic purposes because of the plethora and diversity of potentially isolated organ-isms. This process is typically done on solid (e.g., blood agar) and occasionally in liquid (i.e., broth) media. Once plate growth is observed (the so-called “colony”), the challenge is accurate identification of that growth. Historically, this identification has been considered to be a complex task, and numerous textbooks have been written about it. Traditional (phenotypic) identifica-tion of bacteria and fungi involves examination o