Speaker
Description
Raman spectroscopy can be used to detect, identify, and characterize microbial organisms. In clinical settings such as hospitals, there is a need for methods to verify the sterilization of environments and equipment from pathogenic microbes such as bacteria. Of particular interest is the sterilization of so-called spore-forming bacteria since these can enter a zombie-like state when exposed to harsh environments. When in their spore form, these bacteria are highly resistant to disinfectant chemicals, high temperature (>100 ˚C), cold, radiation. Due to the hardy nature of these spores, it is especially relevant to develop ways of determining the viability of a spore population. However, current methods to verify spore viability, such as agar plate growth and PCR, are often time-consuming, or difficult to perform due to the spores’ hardiness. Here, spectroscopic techniques provide a rapid alternative to existing microbiological techniques in determining the viability of a bacterial population.
In this presentation we will demonstrate a method using metabolism of heavy water (D2O) as an indicator for spore viability. By incubating a spores with D2O, a healthy spore will incorporate deuterium into its structure during metabolism, while an inactivated will not. The C-D chemical bonds formed during metabolism will then serve as an indicator for sample viability, which we can then track by a characteristic C-D Raman peak at 2200 cm-1 using a laser tweezer Raman system. We evaluated the rapidity of the method, as well as its invasiveness on a spore sample.
