Pataigin’s science focuses on microbial lipids. The BACLIB method analyzes microbial lipid fingerprints to identify pathogens and determines antimicrobial resistance.
Lipid fingerprints
Each microbial species expresses a unique “fingerprint” of lipids in its membrane. BACLIB identifies pathogens in a specimen by detecting species-specific lipid fingerprints in a mass spectrum of microbial lipids.
BACLIB fingerprints of Gram-negative bacteria essentially comprise the unique pattern of lipid A molecules expressed by that species. Fingerprints for Gram-positive predominantly comprise patterns of cardiolipins and lipoteichoic acid. Fungal fingerprints are predominantly sphingolipids and sterols.
The BACLIB method
BACLIB uses mass spectrometry to measure the membrane lipids that uniquely identify microbial species. BACLIB performs a rapid lipid extraction on the target of a MALDI plate. Minimal handling steps result in high sensitivity and low handling time per specimen.
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST)
Some forms of antimicrobial resistance are detected as part of the initial, one-hour ID test.
A second test step determines MICs (minimum inhibitory concentrations) of antibiotics within six hours of sample collection.
Today, AST results require up to three days. BACLIB accelerates AST results to between one and six hours.
