Methods for making a sterilization indicator and for monitoring a sterilization process using membrane potential

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9012173-B2
Application number	US-201414180706-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 14, 2014
Priority date	Jul 20, 2010
Publication date	Apr 21, 2015
Grant date	Apr 21, 2015

Abstract

The disclosed invention relates to a method of making a sterilization indicator including depositing an electronically conductive material on a substrate using an ink jet printer and depositing a biological indicator on part or all of the electronically conductive material using the ink jet printer, and further relates to a method for monitoring a sterilization process including (A) exposing an article to be sterilized and a biological indicator to a sterilization medium during a sterilization process, the biological indicator comprising a cell with a plasma membrane in which the biological indicator is positioned on part or all of an electronically conductive material positioned on a substrate; and (B) measuring the membrane potential of the cell to detect the viability of the cell.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of making a sterilization indicator, comprising:
depositing an electronically conductive material on a substrate using an ink jet printer;
depositing a biological indicator on part or all of the electronically conductive material using the ink jet printer;
providing electrical communication between the electronically conductive material and the biological indicator; and
providing circuitry adapted to detect a change in membrane potential…

Assignees

• American Sterilizer Co

Inventors

• Franciskovich Phillip P
• Cregger Tricia A

Classifications

• C12Q1/22 Primary

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• G01N21/6486 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic