title: Reagentless detection and classification of individual bioaerosol particles in seconds.
abstract: The rapid chemical analysis of individual cells is an analytical capability that will profoundly impact many fields including bioaerosol detection for biodefense and cellular diagnostics for clinical medicine. This article describes a mass spectrometry-based analytical technique for the real-time and reagentless characterization of individual airborne cells without sample preparation. We characterize the mass spectral signature of individual Bacillus spores and demonstrate the ability to distinguish two Bacillus spore species, B. thuringiensis and B.atrophaeus, from one another very accurately and from the other biological and nonbiological background materials tested with no false positives at a sensitivity of 92%. This example demonstrates that the chemical differences between these two Bacillus spore species are consistently and easily detected within single cells in seconds.
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Fergenson
authors.forename: Maurice E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Pitesky
authors.forename: Herbert J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Tobias
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.forename: Gregg A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Czerwieniec
authors.forename: Scott C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Carlito B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Lebrilla
authors.forename: Joanne M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Horn
authors.forename: Keith R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Coffee
authors.forename: Abneesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: Segaran P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Pillai
authors.forename: Meng-Ta Peter
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Howard L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Albert J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Ramponi
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Langlois
authors.forename: Pedro L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Estacio
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Hadley
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.forename: Eric E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Gard
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis*; D000391:Air Microbiology; D001407:Bacillus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003013:Clostridium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D045424:Complex Mixtures / Q000032:analysis; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D045424:Complex Mixtures; D003470:Culture Media