Current Trends in Microbial Diagnostics Based on Mass Spectrometry

Recently, a major increase in mass spectrometer installations has occurred in routine clinical microbiology laboratories worldwide. At present, there are hundreds of various instruments sold and the market is still far from being saturated. Although the clinical community still declares it has discovered a “new technology”, the first mass spectrometry investigation of whole microorganism analysis was published in 1970, and the first commercial protein mass-fingerprinting package was introduced in 2000. This critical review covers the microbiology literature related to mass spectrometry published primarily in the 2011−2012 period. It also reports on mass spectrometry vendor sales,pending patent applications and company plans for the near future