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Microbial Identifications  

 

Microbial identifications are performed for a variety of reasons, including characterization of a product’s bioburden, routine testing of incoming materials, evaluation of environmental isolates, identification of sterility test positives, and investigation of out-of-spec products or conditions.   

 

AppTec performs microbial identification and characterization in-house using the DuPont RiboPrinter® system, an efficient and consistent method for obtaining fast, reliable results.  

 

Principle of the RiboPrinter® System

The RiboPrinter® is a fully automated system for identifying and characterizing bacterial isolates.  The system uses ribosomal DNA to create a genetic fingerprint, or RiboPrint® pattern, which can be used to identify bacteria beyond the species level.  The DuPont Identification Library has over 6000 ribosomal patterns – representing more than 1400 microbial species – and new patterns can be added to expand the library.  

 

Advantages of the RiboPrinter® System

The RiboPrinter® system is fast, reliable, and, being totally automated, both consistent and non-subjective.  It allows identification beyond the species level, which is an advantage when tracking microbial isolates for particular materials, a specific product or throughout a process or system.  As new patterns are encountered, they can be added to expand the library, and these patterns can be compiled into individual, client-specfic databases.  

 

Customized Databases

The RiboPrinter® system allows AppTec to create individual client databases containing all the isolates ever received from a client or site.  Subsequent samples can be easily compared to previous data to quickly determine if the isolate has been encountered before.   

 

Contamination Tracking

The ability of the RiboPrinter® system to both identify and characterize bacteria allows for easy tracking and identification of bioburden or microbial contamination for a particular product or within a client’s facility.  

 

Other Microbial ID Methods

Identifications can also be performed using the Crystal System, DNA sequencing or fatty acid analysis.