Label-free bacteria identification for clinical applications

At the end of 2022 researchers from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel and  Tel-Aviv University, Israel published in Journal of Biophotonics (Wiley-VCH GmbH) an article where they describe a system for bacterium identification based on VIGO detector.

If the bacteria is proper not identified in the patient, the doctor prescribes a wide-spectrum antibiotic, which carries the risk of more complications and increase the probability of resistance. Scientists’ study was done on 12 of the most common bacteria usually seen in clinical microbiology laboratories. The presented system is based on a Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) using PVMI-2TE-10.6-1×1 detector made by VIGO Photonics. Researchers measure the bacteria spectrum in the 8 to 12 μm spectral range, therefore they decided to use VIGO detector working in the range of 2 – 12 μm. Method is based on increasing the optical path in the samples, which will increase the signal incrementally in orders of magnitude. Classification uses a developed neauralnetwork architecture that captures the subtle changes in pattern in the FTIR signals.

Scientists write that system can be extended to additional bacterium types and variants with no change to its hardware or software, but only updating the model’s parameters. It means, that VIGO’s detector can be successfully used in future developments related to label-free bacteria identification.

Link to the article