title: Peaks of Promise and Peril: Screening for Antibiotic Resistance by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry.
abstract: An article in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology (J.-H. Youn, S. K. Drake, R. A. Weingarten, K. M. Frank, J. P. Dekker, and A. F. Lau, J Clin Microbiol 53:35-42, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01643-15) describes the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry for the detection of organisms carrying a blaKPC-containing plasmid. This powerful and promising application highlights the challenges of using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for purposes other than organism identification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA nanderson@path.wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Neil W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization