Week 6 - Xieyue Xiao

This week we finally confirmed the 11 isolates by MALDI (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization) which detects the differences in 16S ribosomes. In our lab in Ithaca, we usually use 16S sequencing to finally identify the species. But here we have a much faster and less complicated way to do it. To set up MALDI, we just need to smear a proper amount of colonies on each spot, resuspend with the matrix provided and put it into the machine. It will firstly map in the clinical database and then the research database and finish the reports in less than 10 min!
As for the results, all of our 11 isolates are confirmed as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, they belong to at least three different strains of P. aeruginosa. It would be very interesting investigating how different are they at the genomic level. This will be revealed after I process all the samples and sequence all the isolates when I get back to Ithaca.