.

Carrie                    Pierce                                                                                              

Office:  ES&T L2-110

Office Phone:  404-385-4427

E-mail: cby3@cdc.gov

Education

2004 - Present   Georgia Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Student, Analytical Chemistry

2004                 University of South Florida, Masters in Public Health

Honors and Awards

2008 CDC & ATSDR Honor Award - Public health epidemiology and laboratory research

2008 CDC NCEH & ATSDR Honor Award - Excellence in laboratory research and method development

2005-2006 CDC/GIT Seed awards program

2004 Outstanding Presentation - Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) Conference

2000-2002 Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education Fellowship, CDC

Research Interests

Direct High-throughput Analysis of Pathogenic Bacteria by MALDI, DESI and DART

Direct analysis in real time (DART) and Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) are versatile, new ionization techniques for mass spectrometry that allow the direct detection of chemicals on a variety of surfaces, without sample preparation. In my thesis work, DART coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF MS), and DESI coupled to quadrupole ion trap (QiT) MS are being applied to the identification and classification of pathogenic bacteria. This approach capitalizes on the ability of TOF MS to provide improved selectivity through exact mass measurements, and of QiT to provide added layers of statistical identification confidence via MSⁿ. I am analyzing several different strains (Nine Mile I, Nine Mile II, RSA 514 etc.) of Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q-fever, by DESI and DART with the objective of finding fingerprints that will be useful for diagnostics. In the case of DART, direct in-situ thermal hydrolysis, methylation, and ionization of the bacterial membrane fatty acids is used to increase the sensitivity in generating fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles for each bacterial strain. Results show that FAME intensity profiles are unique for each strain. Clustering of the DART TOF MS data via Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) allows one to unequivocally distinguish between strains. DESI analysis of identical samples also enables the direct analysis of Coxiella burnetii bacterial suspensions, providing information complementary to DART. These applications are also being used to explore identification and classification of other pathogenic bacteria. In summary, DART TOF MS and DESI QiT MSⁿ hold promise as rapid, sensitive, and complementary procedures for direct bacterial identification in the open air.

Publications

1. Analysis of Urinary Metabolites of Sulfur Mustard Agent HD in Two Individuals after Accidental Exposure. John R. Barr, Carrie L. Pierce, J. Richard Smith, Benedict Carpocio, and David L. Ashley,  J Anal Toxicol, 2008, 32(1), 10-16.
2. Coxiella burnetii Strain Identification by Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis of MALDI-TOF MS Biomarker Fingerprints. Carrie Y. Pierce, John R. Barr, Adrian R. Woolfitt, Hercules Moura, Ed I. Shaw, Herbert A. Thompson, and Facundo M.  Fernandez., Anal Chim Acta, 2007,  583(1), 23-31.
3. Ambient generation of fatty acid methyl ester profiles from bacterial whole cells by direct analysis in real time (DART) mass spectrometry. Carrie Y. Pierce,  John R. Barr, Robert B. Cody, Robert F. Massung, Adrian R. Woolfitt, Hercules Moura, and Facundo M. Fernandez, Chem Comm, 2007, 8, 807-09.
4. Survey of Albumin Purification Methods For the Analysis of Albumin-Organic toxicant Adducts by Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-tandem Mass Spectrometry. Carrie L. Young, Lisa G. McWilliams, Adrian R. Woolfit, Hercules Moura, Anne Boyer, and John R. Barr. Proteomics, 2005, 5(18), 4973-79.
5. A Rapid, Sensitive Method for the Quantitative Determination of the Specific Metabolite of Sulfur Mustard in Human Urine Using Isotope-Dilution Gas Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Carrie L. Young, Doris Ash, W. Jack Driskell, Anne E. Boyer, Rodolfo A. Martinez, L.A. Silks, and John R. Barr. J Anal Toxicol, 2004, 28(4), 339-45.
6. Method for the Confirmation of Sulfur Mustard (HD) Exposure:  Dual Quantification of 1,1-sulfonylbis[2-(methylthio)ethane] and Thiodiglycol by Isotope Dilution GC-MS/MS. Anne E. Boyer, Doris Ash, Dana Barr, Carrie L. Young, Jack Driskell, Kerry Preston, and John R. Barr. J Anal Toxicol, 2004, 28(4), 327-332.
7. Evaluation of Sensitive/Less Sensitive Testing Algorithm Using the Biomerieux Vironostika-LS Assay for Detecting Recent HIV-1 Subtype B or E in Thailand. Carrie L. Young, Dale J. Hu, Robert Byers,  Suphak Vanichseni, Nancy L. Young, Robert Nelson, Philip A. Mock, Kachit Choopanya, Robert Janssen, Timothy D. Mastro, and Joanne V. Mei, AIDS Res, 2003, 19(6), 481-86.