SMALTIS

SMALTIS can identify and quantify the different bacterial species which may be present in a sample or on a surface.

Services offered:

• identification and quantification of bacteria in the sample by culture: enables in particular the identification of pathogenic species.
• identification and quantification of bacteria in the sample by PCR (quantitative or RT-qPCR): a precise measurement for estimating the bacterial load and the identification of specific species.
• quantification by luminescence (identification of bacteria, moulds and yeasts).

Applications which can be considered:

• Studies relating to the hygiene of public or private places: we can define the state of cleanliness of a public or private place by measuring the degree of contamination of various control points.
• Verification of the sterility of various products, whether cosmetic or food.

Gene inactivation by homologous recombination (creation of knockout bacteria)

Through gene inactivation by a homologous recombination technique leading to the total deletion of the gene (near to the base) without leaving any additional DNA sequences (antibiotic resistance cassettes), SMALTIS can construct for you the deletion mutants (knockout) you need for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, P. fluorescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae or other bacteria. Thanks to this capability, you can obtain KO mutants derived from your own bacterial strains.

We can also complement chromosomally the various genetic targets in your bacterial strains.

Applications which can be considered:

• Identification of the function of a protein
• Study of control pathways

Determination of resistance to different drugs

We can perform in vitro determination of the sensitivity of your bacterial strains to various drugs, such as antibiotics, antiseptics, dyes, etc.

SMALTIS can also identify the associated resistance mechanisms, as well as their genetic origin.

Panel of methods available:

• Antibiotic susceptibility testing by agar diffusion method, as recommended by the CA-SFM (Comité de l'Antibiogramme de la Société Française de Microbiologie [Antibiogram Committee of the French Society for Microbiology]).
• Determination of the MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations)
  • agar diffusion technique
  • macrodilution method in liquid medium
  • test strips (Etest)
  • microplates (Sensititre)
• Performing bactericidal curves.

Detect mycoplasmas in culture supernatants.

SMALTIS has developed a partnership with a company specialized in the next generation sequencing technologies which allows us to perform whole bacterial genome sequencing.

We can perform chromosomal directed mutagenesis to modify directly one or more nucleotides of a chromosomal sequence.

As recommended by CLSI and CA-SFM.