Patent ID: 8046171

Claim:
A system, comprising: a) a mass spectrometer for obtaining a mass spectrum signal of a nucleic acid amplification product of an unknown bioagent, wherein said mass spectrum signal corresponds to a molecular mass of said nucleic acid amplification product, and wherein said nucleic acid amplification product is delineated by a primer set; b) a signal processor for: i) converting said mass spectrum signal to a base composition wherein said base composition identifies the number of, but not the nucleic acid gene sequence order of, A residues, C residues, T residues, and G residues in said amplification product, ii) comparing said base composition of said nucleic acid amplification product of said unknown bioagent with a plurality of base compositions of virtual nucleic acid amplicons of known bioagents, wherein said virtual nucleic acid amplicons are delineated by said primer set, and wherein said base compositions of said virtual nucleic acid amplicons of known bioagents identify the number of, but not the nucleic acid gene sequence order of, A residues, C residues, T residues, and G residues in said virtual nucleic acid amplicons of known bioagents, and iii) detecting a match of said base composition of said nucleic acid amplification product of said unknown bioagent with a base composition from said plurality of base compositions of virtual nucleic acid amplicons of known bioagents; wherein said signal processor generates a report identifying said unknown bioagent based on said match.