Rapid Analysis of Microbiological Systems Using SERS

Research in the biological sciences field is now moving forward at an unprecedented rate. Modern technological advances, particularly computational processing power, but also modern analytical methods, have been embraced by the life sciences. In combination these have developed to such an extent that it is now possible to begin to investigate complex systems using powerful techniques that in the past would most likely have been the preserve of the analytical chemist. There is still a wealth of highly challenging problems in biology that need to be solved, and this will necessitate the continual evolution of novel analytical strategies. Genotyping technology revolutionized the study of biological systems; by using the polymerase chain reaction to amplify genetic material extracted from a cell, gel electrophoresis and more recently multiplex genotyping could be performed to map genetic sequences, and observe genetic differences between organisms. However, even this highly qualitative approach has yielded many more questions than it actually answers, since the function of genes of interest cannot normally be directly inferred from the “static” sequence blueprint. Thus, within the areas of functional genomics and systems biology many studies are actually aimed at investigating the organism’s phenotype directly. The phenotype is defined as the result of the expressed genotype of the organism and is influenced by the environment which it inhabits. Whilst genetic analysis can be enlightening, it is often not as informative as phenotypic information, and because of this, in microbial research biochemical analyses have been adopted to measure quantitatively cellular components such as proteins and metabolites. However, more recently great steps have been made to introduce rapid spectroscopic approaches to study the phenotype. So, exactly what are biologists interested in understanding about microbial systems? Broad areas of interest include: microbial classification and identification; mRNA, protein and metabolic profiling; functional genomics; systems biology; optimization, regulation and understanding of microbial bioprocesses; and more specifically with increased incidence of antibiotic resis-