Micro Imaging Technology Inc (MMTC)

[Dreamchaser]

The Direction of Micro-Imaging Technologies, Inc

It might as well be a press release since Hollen is now employed by MMTC in their private lab.

In the future we also plan to perform IMS capture, enrichment, and laser-light scattering identification on patient swab samples obtained directly from infected wounds or soft tissue infections. We hope to perform a single-blind experiment, similar to the single-blind experiment conducted in chapter two, with the addition of IMS capture and enrichment directly from patient swab specimens.Future directions in combination with our collaborator, MIT, include improving the Staphylococcus species Identifier to specifically identify Staphylococcus aureus. Currently MIT reports that the S. aureus Identifier is 95% completed. Once the S. aureus Identifier is complete the S. aureus Identifier will be validated by testing in the Sharp lab.
We have over two dozen different S. aureus isolates in our strain collection to test the strength of this Identifier. MIT is also making initial light scattering measurement on a MRSA strains. We purchased two MRSA panels from the American Type Collection that contains 17 different MRSA strains with different sccMec types. It will be interesting to
determine if MRSA strains have any consistent light scattering pattern differences compared to methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strains. The mecA gene genomic insertions that confer methicillin resistance are relatively small, between 2.820-2.903 Mb nucleotides and the protein content of the MRSA cell is likely very similar to MSSA strains. It may push the limits of the technology to differentiate MRSA from MSSA. MIT also plans to automate the methods we have generated. Although this system generates an identification for S. aureus faster than traditional methods it is still fairly labor intensive.

http://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=theses