MALDI Biotyper® for Water Testing
MALDI Biotyper® for Water Testing
The MALDI Biotyper® (MBT) system accurately identifies and confirms cultivated waterborne pathogens and quality indicators within minutes, enabling water suppliers to preserve environmental and drinking water from serious contamination events. Based on Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), water microbiology laboratories can generate protein ‘fingerprints‘ of microorganisms, to identify potentially pathogenic species.
Broad coverage of microorganisms
bacteria and fungi
Rapid confirmation of pathogens and quality indicators
The MALDI Biotyper® can reliably test multiple colonies in one run, saving crucial time for the confirmation of coliforms, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp., Enterococcus spp., sulfite-reducing anaerobes (Clostridium), and other environmental contaminants. Fast confirmation results facilitate quick decision making, to ensure the quality and safety of water.
Accurate identification of cultivated waterborne pathogens and quality indicators
The identification of bacterial isolates at the species level enables the characterization of biofilms in drinking water distribution, cooling water systems and towers. MALDI-TOF MS provides a rapid, simple mode of identification, and facilitates a clear representation of the exact species of Legionella and other microbes present in a range of water systems.
Microbial ‘fingerprinting’
The MALDI Biotyper® creates a unique proteomic ‘fingerprint’ of the microorganism using MALDI-TOF MS technology for accurate and reliable identification, by matching the ‘fingerprint’ peak profile to thousands of reference spectra.
Broad coverage of microorganisms
The MALDI Biotyper® is capable of detecting over 4,700 different bacteria and fungi species from a range of genera. Water testing laboratories can also continuously expand their own library with home-made reference spectra, thanks to the open library concept. The robustness of MALDI-TOF MS technology confers highly reproducible results, providing confidence in identifications, as well as the possibility of contributing to taxonomic and epidemiological studies.
Saving crucial time
By removing the need for confirmation of presumptive positive screening, the overall turnaround time of analysis for a range of microorganisms can be greatly reduced. Current industry standard methods for the confirmation of presumptive positive samples can take 1-2 days following incubation, whereas the MALDI Biotyper® confirms within minutes.
The MALDI Biotyper® workflow does not require a purification step, saving more than 24 hours for Salmonella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and quality indicators such as coliforms, E. Coli, Clostridium perfringens and Enterococci. The same workflow is applicable for all pathogen and quality indicator tests, allowing technicians to seamlessly analyze a multitude of microorganisms.
A verified technique
MALDI-TOF MS is a recognized technology for the identification of Legionella spp., as specified in the ISO 11731 standard. This approach has also been reviewed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), as well as by the German AGROLAB Labor of Eching am Ammersee and Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene of Regensburg.1
1 Dilger T, Melzl H and Gessner A, 2016, 127:154-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2016.05.028
Not for use in clinical diagnostic procedures.
