Mass spectrometry for the detection of bioterrorism agents: from environmental to clinical applications.

The threat posed by bioterrorism is a serious concern as the consequences of a large‐scale biological attack would be devastating, causing significant social and economic disruption, while being potentially achievable at a relatively moderate cost and without the need for specific high‐level technology. The biological agents potentially concerned include both microorganisms and protein toxins. In this Special Feature article, Eric Ezan and co‐workers provide an up to date review and report on some of the technological developments that have recently enabled the detection of these bioagents to move forward. They also address today's challenges in translating MS‐based approaches from the original environmental detection to clinical diagnosis. Dr. Ezan is a biochemist at the Centre d'Etude Atomique de Saclay (Gif sur Yvette, France). Amongst his research interests is the study of metabolic processing of biologics by numerous techniques including mass spectrometry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]