Spectroscopic Phenotypic Typing of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria: Advances in FTIR and Raman Applications

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria poses an escalating challenge for clinical microbiology and infectious disease management. While genomic approaches have improved our understanding of resistance mechanisms, they remain time-consuming, costly, and often impractical for routine diagnostics. In contrast, spectroscopic phenotyping—particularly Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy—has emerged as a powerful, rapid, and cost-effective suite of methodologies capable of detecting strain-level diversity, inferring antimicrobial resistance patterns, and supporting real-time epidemiological surveillance.

This Topic aims to collate cutting-edge research in spectroscopic phenotyping of MDR bacteria, spanning methodological advances, clinical applications, laboratory workflows, machine learning-based classification, and translational potential for point-of-care diagnostics. Contributions covering FTIR, Raman, MALDI-TOF MS data integration, and hybrid phenotypic–genotypic pipelines are welcome to be submitted.

We invite the submission of original research articles, comprehensive reviews, methodological papers, and clinical validation studies that foster a multidisciplinary discussion and accelerate the implementation of spectroscopy-based phenotyping in AMR diagnostics.

Dr. László Orosz
Dr. David Rodríguez Temporal
Topic Editors