MALDI-TOF
MALDI-TOF Diagnostic
The Department of Bacteriology (NMIMR) provides microbial diagnostic services using the Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) Biotyper on commercial basis. The MALDI Biotyper identifies microorganisms by measuring the unique protein fingerprint of an organism. Specifically, the MALDI system measures highly abundant proteins that are found in microorganisms. The characteristic patterns of these proteins are used to reliably identify a particular microorganism by matching the respective patterns with an extensive database to determine the identity of the microorganism down to species level.
The MALDI-TOF-MS Biotyper System is
- Highly accurate and reproducible
- Applicable to a wide range of microorganisms–for example bacteria and fungi
- Much faster than traditional methods
- Cost effective
- Booking must be done by completing a form (soft or hard copy) via the Departmental secretary
- (gwemakor@noguchi.ug.edu.gh) at least one week before submission of cultures for analysis
- Client(s) will receive an invoice from the Departmental secretary after booking
- Upon receipt of the invoice, payment must be made at the accounts office of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical
- Research at a rate of $8 per isolate for NMIMR staff, $10 per isolate for UG clients and $12 per isolate for non-UG clients
- Client(s) must submit a copy of the receipt to the Departmental secretary after payment and submit cultures for analysis
- Upon receipt of cultures, analysis will be done within One-week. There is no restriction on the number of samples to be submitted for analysis
- Bacterial cultures must be pure, grown on a suitable agar medium, forming single colonies and should not be older than 24 hours
- All fungal cultures must be pure, grown on suitable medium; one culture per agar plate
- All samples should be clearly (legible) identified, i.e. have a proper code written on the bottom of the Petri dish no longer than 5 digits.
- MALDI-TOF-MS diagnostic services runs from Monday-Friday, 9am – 3pm
- Analysis is done on a first-come-first-served basis
- The Booking form must be completed in full
- We do not accept responsibility for the purity of microbial cultures (for example older or mixed cultures)
- Re-analysis of cultures due to inconclusive results (due to old or mixed cultures) will be treated as a new and should be paid for as such
- We do prepare cultures for the MADLI-TOF Biotyper analysis with extra charge ($3 per isolate)
- We do not interpret results
- We do not return cultures – please ensure that you have backups
- We reserve the right to use the cultures/results for future data base expansion
- We reserve the right to enter the results in the databank of the MADLI-TOF system. However the IP still belongs to the researcher and it will be documented as such
For further enquiries, kindly send an e-mail to:
Mrs. Gifty Wemakor
gwemakor@noguchi.ug.edu.gh
Dr. Beverly Egyir
begyir@noguchi.ug.edu.gh
Dr. Isaac Darko Otchere
iotchere@noguchi.ug.edu.gh
Mr. Emmanuel Akoto
emmanuelakoto89@gmail.com