SERS for Diagnostics and Forensics: Selected Past, Present, and Future Highlights

The use of SERS for bacterial diagnostics, and for detection and identification of trace amounts of human body fluids has the potential for making transformative impacts in the fields of infectious disease management and forensic science respectively. 785 nm excited SERS spectra of vegetative bacterial cells, fungi, and spores are described. While bacterial species and strain identification via SERS and multivariate data analysis approaches is possible within limited reference data sets, the promise of SERS ultra-rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing that can provide best treatment options for combatting infectious disease and mitigate the growing concerns about multidrug resistant bacteria is seen as the most promising SERS application in the area of bacterial diagnostics. In addition, a SERS-based methodology may provide forensic scientists with a single platform for the rapid identification of trace amounts of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and saliva at crime scenes or laboratories, and would be a new capability in forensic science. A key value underlying our efforts in these areas is to provide a molecular and biochemical understanding of all the features and interactions that give rise to the observed spectroscopic signatures and is fully illustrated in this chapter.