The workshop, which was attended by 130 participants, consisted of 25 lectures and nearly 50 poster presentations. The presentations covered a wide range of techniques, (infrared, Raman, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy), applications (bacterial and fungal typing, cytology, cell differentiation and development) and theoretical/computational aspects. As in the past, this workshop provided an ideal environment for the exchange of new results and ideas, and brought together researchers from all over the globe.
This special issue reflects the historic aim of the workshop series, namely the application of techniques of vibrational spectroscopy to the identification and classification of micro-organisms. This emphasis is, indeed, very appropriate, since the entire field of applications of infrared spectroscopy to cellular systems was started two decades ago, at the Robert Koch-Institut, and has developed into a research en-deavour in which dozens of research groups participate, and that has seen the first commercial applications. The guest editors hope that this special issue provides a summary of efforts in this field. For a series of papers directed more toward tissue and cell spectroscopy, the reader is referred to a previous special issue of the