Bruker have announced multiple placements of MALDI Biotyper systems for rapid, differentiated and cost-effective microbial identification with various local, state and federal authorities and institutes in Germany. These local authorities are responsible for public health, animal health, food safety, consumer protection, agriculture and fisheries.In recent years, European clinical laboratories have been increasingly performing routine microbial identification using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. In contrast to previous biochemical testing methods, the MALDI Biotyper offers the benefit of very fast identification with results available in a few minutes starting from a culture plate. Additionally, the MALDI Biotyper reference library has broader coverage of microbial species as compared to commercially available biochemical methods and is applicable for isolates obtained from food safety and consumer protection sources. Frequently, isolates from these sources are not sufficiently represented in previous commercial identification systems.

Microbial identification with the MALDI Biotyper is done using a proteomic fingerprint. This unique species-specific pattern is automatically compared with proteomic fingerprints of reference spectra from more than 2100 species in the MALDI Bioptyper library. In addition, the MALDI Biotyper supports the Open Microbiology Concept which allows customers to generate their own entries from their own regional isolates via a push-button process and storage in a customer-specific sub-library.

Among recent new MALDI Biotyper customers are state and local authorities in Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart (CVUA Stuttgart), Karlsruhe (CVUA Karlsruhe), Freiburg (CVUA Freiburg) and Aulendorf (STUA Aulendorf). Additional orders were received from authorities in Arnsberg (STUA Arnsberg), Rostock (LALLF Rostock) and Bad Langensalza. Previously, authorities in Oldenburg, Krefeld (CVUA Krefeld) and Oberschleißheim have implemented the MALDI Biotyper workflow.

Recently, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung, Berlin) and the Industry Control Office Hildesheim have also chosen the MALDI Biotyper. As a result, a wide range of German state and local authorities, regulatory bodies and federal control institutes now rely on Bruker's MALDI Biotyper solution for their microbial identification requirements. Bruker complies with ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 requirements for quality management in its MALDI Biotyper production facilities in Bremen (Germany) and in Billerica, Massachusetts (USA) in compliance with the strict quality assurance requirements of this customer group.

Dr. Jörg Rau at the CVUA Stuttgart commented: "In our laboratory we have utilized Bruker´s FT-IR spectroscopy instruments for a number of years. We see a general trend that such modern physical techniques increasingly replace outdated biochemical testing. Accordingly, it was a logical step to introduce also a MALDI-TOF MS based workflow with the MALDI Biotyper in our laboratory for broad identification and typing purposes to complement the FT-IR spectrometer. It is especially helpful that the MALDI Biotyper reference library is an open system, where we can add our own isolates, if needed. We can even exchange these new entries between our cooperating laboratory sites in Baden-Württemberg."

Dr. Wolfgang Pusch, Executive Vice President - Microbiology Business at Bruker Daltonics, added: "We are pleased that these authorities involved in consumer protection, food safety and risk assessment have selected the MALDI Biotyper for their microbiology labs. This clearly indicates that the Bruker MALDI Biotyper is setting new standards for high-quality, rapid and cost-effective methods for microbial identification for these laboratories. We see food safety testing as one of the additional broad application fields for our MALDI Biotyper systems."