*Review* **Detection and Characterization of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy**

### **Kaidi Wang 1, Shenmiao Li 1, Marlen Petersen 1, Shuo Wang 2 and Xiaonan Lu 1,\***


Received: 25 August 2018; Accepted: 23 September 2018; Published: 26 September 2018

**Abstract:** This mini-review summarizes the most recent progress concerning the use of surfaceenhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the detection and characterization of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We first discussed the design and synthesis of various types of nanomaterials that can be used as the SERS-active substrates for biosensing trace levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We then reviewed the tandem-SERS strategy of integrating a separation element/platform with SERS sensing to achieve the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environmental, agri-food, and clinical samples. Finally, we demonstrated the application of using SERS to investigate bacterial antibiotic resistance and susceptibility as well as the working mechanism of antibiotics based on spectral fingerprinting of the whole cells.

**Keywords:** SERS; chemometrics; resistance; biosensing; rapid detection
