Mass spectrometry method identifies pathogens within minutes instead of days

Summary

Prof Nicole Strittmatter (left) and first author Wei Chen stand in front of the mass spectrometer with a tissue sample. Credit: Robert Reich / TUM Traditionally, bacterial diseases are diagnosed by the tedious isolation of pathogens and the creation of bacterial cultures. Waiting times of several days are the rule here. Only then can targeted treatment of the disease begin. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Imperial College London have developed a new method to identify bacteria with unprecedented speed. This means that the waiting time can be reduced from several days to just a few minutes. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications. The team, led by Nicole Strittmatter, professor of analytical chemistry at TUM, and Dr. James S. McKenzie (Imperial), uses mass spectrometry for its innovative approach. This enabled the researchers to identify specific metabolic products of bacteria directly in tissue and stool samples. At the heart of the process is a database in which 232 medically important bacterial species and their metabolic products have been recorded to date. Biomarkers are derived from this database, which can then be used to directly detect specific bacteria. Among the bacteria that can be identified using the new method are clinically extremely important pathogens that can, for example, trigger stomach cancer, are responsible for certain pneumonias and meningitis, are associated with premature births, and can cause gonorrhea or blood poisoning. Comparison between mass spectrometry images (MSI) and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) images. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55457-7 Further expanding the bacterial database First author Wei Chen, Ph.D. student at the Department of Bioscience at the TUM School of Natural Sciences in Garching, emphasizes, "Our innovative approach is not to look directly for the pathogenic bacteria, but only for their metabolic products. This allows us t...