Extracting and visualizing matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectral fingerprints

We have developed a method for constructing and extracting matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) fingerprints, This method is fully auto mated and statistically based, allowing a large number of spectra to be ana lyzed at a time in an objective manner. This method can be used to extract the fingerprint of a particular analyte from a spectrum containing multiple analytes, Therefore, this method lends itself well to real-world applicati ons where samples to be analyzed are likely to be impure, We illustrate thi s method on experimental results from a series of studies of E. coli and B. atrophaeus MALDI time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) fingerprints. Co pyright (C) 1999 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.