Technological implementation that benefits cost and time

The National University of San Agustín continues to position itself as academic referents and leaders in national research. Recently, a Mass Spectrometer – Flight Time (MALDI TOF / MS) has been incorporated into the Molecular Microbiology Laboratory, which will leave aside the classical modality, which has been practiced for 50 years, for the identification of bacteria, fungi filamentous and levaduriformes and viruses.

By using this equipment, the times and costs it took to detect a microorganism, as well as the demand for highly specialized personnel, are reduced by 75%. If previously, through the phenotypic morpho process (by size, shape and characteristics), it was possible to identify a pathogen in 48 to 62 hours, today this takes only 24 hours. While costs are reduced between 25 and 75 soles to 10 and 18 soles.

In this first stage, research will continue in the field of microbiology, required in the fields of human and veterinary medicine

, for example, direct identification of urinary tract pathogens and bacteria present in human intestines and their association with diseases, food contamination, environmental and industrial microbiology.

The technical team in charge of the new equipment is made up of the doctors:

Jorge Ballón Echegaray, Blanca Mayorca de Paredes, José Fernández Rivera, Ricardo León Vásquez, Dafne Salas Cuadros y Fiorella Medina Medina.

With the implementation and equipment of the Molecular Microbiology laboratory, the National University of San Agustín de Arequipa, becomes a pioneer in our country by having mass spectrometry equipment – Flight time (MALDI TOF / MS).