Wickham Laboratories announces microbial identification service

Wickham Laboratories has introduced a new rapid microbial identification service, the MALDI Biotyper or Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation-Time of Flight (MALDI-ToF)

Identification via MALDI-ToF is more reliable than the traditional biochemical methods used in microbial identification according to the company.

MALDI-ToF can identify organisms to species level within minutes to make same day identification possible.

The service can then compare the spectral results with a database of organisms which provides reliable results on different media types and on cultures up to 72 hours old.

The company said that for any organism not matching those present in its database it can also provide an identification free of any additional charges.

Identification by MALDI-ToF is the latest in-house service Wickham Laboratories has validated.

Lynne Murdoch, business manager microbiology, Wickham Laboratories, said: “Being at the forefront of microbiology testing is vital to the industries that we serve and we strive to continuously evolve in order to meet the increasing demands of our clients and the regulatory bodies governing this field.

“MALDI-ToF is currently one of the most exciting technologies in identification and brings unique benefits in turnaround time and accuracy to our clients in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.”