glossing... Article mentions existing tools e.g., MasSpec Pen, which detect signals of interest in samples with minimal processing (i.e., avoiding the hard par

glossing... Article mentions existing tools e.g., MasSpec Pen, which detect signals of interest in samples with minimal processing (i.e., avoiding the hard part of processing/cleaning bio samples). But those were specific cancer signals that stood out from the general protein noise. (See also the cancer knife, that burns to cut and analyzes the smoke to see if you have enough margin). Problem with bacteria is (a) wide diversity and (b) previous work was mostly on lipids, not small molecules. For small molecule metabolites of bacteria, previous article reported a medium-size proof of concept (hundreds of target), and this is doing more (thousands), where they identify a few hundred unique patterns and then demonstrate their detection. At 90%, it's likely this would be used for pre-screening to identify possible candidates, though it might reinforce initial clinical suspicion and preliminary antibiotics.