title: Rapid bacterial diagnostics via surface enhanced Raman microscopy.
abstract: There is a continuing need to develop new techniques for the rapid and specific identification of bacterial pathogens in human body fluids especially given the increasing prevalence of drug resistant strains. Efforts to develop a surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based approach, which encompasses sample preparation, SERS substrates, portable Raman microscopy instrumentation and novel identification software, are described. The progress made in each of these areas in our laboratory is summarized and illustrated by a spiked infectious sample for urinary tract infection (UTI) diagnostics. SERS bacterial spectra exhibit both enhanced sensitivity and specificity allowing the development of an easy to use, portable, optical platform for pathogen detection and identification. SERS of bacterial cells is shown to offer not only reproducible molecular spectroscopic signatures for analytical applications in clinical diagnostics, but also is a new tool for studying biochemical activity in real time at the outer layers of these organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston University, Boston MA 02215 ; Photonics Center, 15 Saint Mary's St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215.
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Premasiri
authors.affiliation: Photonics Center, 15 Saint Mary's St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215 ; Fraunhofer USA - Center for Manufacturing Innovation, 15 Saint Mary's St. Brookline, MA 02446 ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, 44 Cummington St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215.
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Sauer-Budge
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St. Boston MA 02115.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Photonics Center, 15 Saint Mary's St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215 ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, 44 Cummington St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215 ; Department of Mechanical Engineering, 44 Cummington St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Klapperich
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston University, Boston MA 02215 ; Photonics Center, 15 Saint Mary's St., Boston University, Boston MA 02215.
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Ziegler