MALDI-TOF Mass Fingerprinting for Rapid Identification of Bacteria: Experimental Procedures

In this chapter, scientific and instrumental fundamentals related to the generation of bacterial MALDI-TOF mass fingerprints were briefly described. For bacterial identification by MALDI-TOF mass fingerprinting, experimental procedures for patient sampling, the culture and isolation of bacterial cells from patient samples, the preparation of bacterial cells and MALDI matrices, and the deposition of bacteria and matrices on MALDI target plates, as well as the setting of instrumental parameters, were given in detail.