It is feasible to use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the detection of microorganisms. Further, the use of the technology to generate a "molecular fingerprint" of infection-causing pathogens is potentially clinically "valuable" to either prevent or more effectively treat high rates of wound infections in military personnel, according to a military technical report. Current diagnostic assays used to identify the infection-causing pathogen and select appropriate treatment are limited in their sensitivity and take too long due to the need to isolate and culture bacteria. While molecular approaches have aided pathogen identification in traditional settings, they are not yet point-of-care field deployable. Researchers from the Naval Medical Research Unit-San Antonio (NAMRU-SA; Ft. Sam Houston, Texas) believe that SERS could meet a critical unmet need for rapid, sensitive diagnosis, even in field conditions. The NAMRU-SA scientists recently demonstrated that the SERS device could identify five bacterial species from pure culture and bacteria recovered from human serum using a proprietary lysis filtration procedure. The technique was utilized on 16 bacterial isolates. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction with melting curves was used to validate the SERS spectra. The spectra (or fingerprints) demonstrate shifts in the frequency of a fixed light as a result of structures […]