Mass spectrometry analysis of microorganisms in samples

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9941105-B2
Application number	US-201715483132-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2017
Priority date	Jun 25, 2013
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for mass spectrometry analysis of microorganisms in samples.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for analyzing a sample for presence of a microorganism, the method comprising:
obtaining a sample comprising a microorganism;
contacting the sample to a porous material;
generating ions of the microorganism from the porous material; and
analyzing the ions, thereby analyzing the sample for the presence of the microorganism, wherein the method is performed without culturing the microorganism.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the porous material is kept separate from a flow of solvent.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein generating comprises applying voltage to the porous material.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising applying a solvent to the porous material.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sample is a mammalian sample.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sample is a food or environmental sample.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the porous material is paper or PVDF membrane.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism is selected from the group consisting of a bacterium, a virus, a protozoan, and a fungus.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein analyzing comprises:
introducing the ions into a mass spectrometer; and
generating one or more mass spectra of the ions using the mass spectrometer.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mass spectrometer is a miniature mass spectrometer.

11. A method for analyzing a sample for presence of a microorganism, the method comprising:
contacting a sample comprising a microorganism to a porous material;
generating one or more mass spectra from the sample comprising the microorganism using a mass spectrometer; and
comparing the one or more mass spectra generated from the sample comprising the microorganism to a database that comprises mass spectra of known organisms, wherein a match between a mass spectra generated from the sample with a mass spectra in the database identifies the presence of a microorganism in the sample, wherein the method is performed without culturing the microorganism.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the porous material is kept separate from a flow of solvent.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein generating comprises applying solvent and a high voltage to the probe.

14. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the porous material is paper or PVDF membrane.

15. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the sample is a mammalian sample.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the sample is a food or environmental sample.

17. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the mass spectrometer is a miniature mass spectrometer.

18. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the mass spectrometer is selected from the group consisting of: a quadrupole ion trap, a rectilinear ion trap, a cylindrical ion trap, a ion cyclotron resonance trap, and an orbitrap.

19. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the microorganism is selected from the group consisting of a bacterium, a virus, a protozoan, and a fungus.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the database comprises a mass spectrum from a genus, a species, a strain, a sub-strain, or an isolate of organisms.

Assignees

• Purdue Research Foundation

Inventors

• Cooks Robert Graham
• Hamid Ahmed Mohamed
• Jarmusch Alan Keith
• Ouyang Zheng

Classifications

• H01J49/16

  using surface ionisation, e.g. field-, thermionic- or photo-emission · CPC title

• G01N2560/00

  Chemical aspects of mass spectrometric analysis of biological material · CPC title

• C12N13/00 Primary

  Treatment of microorganisms or enzymes with electrical or wave energy, e.g. magnetism, sonic waves · CPC title

• H01J49/0445 Primary

  with means for introducing as a spray, a jet or an aerosol (electrospray ion sources H01J49/165) · CPC title

• C12Q1/04

  Determining presence or kind of microorganism; Use of selective media for testing antibiotics or bacteriocides; Compositions containing a chemical indicator therefor {(C12Q1/6897 takes precedence)} · CPC title