Apparatus and method for detecting and identifying microorganisms

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9856446-B2
Application number	US-201614993597-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2016
Priority date	Oct 11, 2006
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

The present invention is an apparatus for detecting the presence, quantity and identity of one or more microorganisms in a sample and a method for using the same. The apparatus is composed of one or more chambers and a sensing element for sensing microorganisms. In particular embodiments, the sensing element is an array of chemoresponsive dyes deposited on a substrate in a predetermined pattern combination, wherein the combination of the dyes have a distinct and direct spectroscopic, transmission, or reflectance response to distinct analytes produced by the microorganism which is indicative of the presence, quantity and identity of the microorganism.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for detecting, quantifying or identifying a microorganism comprising
(a) a container with at least one chamber;
(b) a medium within the chamber of the container, wherein said medium is supplemented with nutrients for supporting growth of a microorganism; and
(c) at least one colorimetric sensing element placed in, or proximate to, the medium, wherein said sensing element includes a substrate comprising a plurality of chemoresponsive dyes in a predetermined pattern combination, wherein monitoring spectroscopic, transmission or reflectance responses of the plurality of chemoresponsive dyes is used to detect, quantify, or identify a microorganism.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the container is bottle or vial as a container.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the container is sealed or sealable.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the container comprises an overlapping radial seal or a capping seal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the medium is a liquid, semi-liquid, semi-solid or solid medium.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a chromatography plate, paper, filter paper, porous membrane, polymer, glass, metal or hydrophobic substrate.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of chemoresponsive dyes are printed on the substrate by airbrushing, ink-jet printing, screen printing, stamping, micropipette spotting, or nanoliter dispensing.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is opaque.

9. A system comprising the apparatus of claim 1 and a retractable rack for holding the apparatus.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the colorimetric sensing element is automatically inspected.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein spectroscopic, transmission or reflectance responses are analyzed by chemometric statistical analysis, an artificial neural network or a pattern recognition algorithm to correlate said responses to at least one analyte, at least one bacterial species, or a combination thereof.

12. A method for analyzing a food, blood, semen, sputum, mucous, feces, soil or water sample for a bacterial contaminant comprising depositing a food, blood, semen, sputum, mucous, feces, soil or water sample onto or into the medium of the apparatus of claim 1 and monitoring spectroscopic, transmission or reflectance responses of the plurality of chemoresponsive dyes thereby analyzing a food, blood, semen, sputum, mucous, feces, soil or water sample for a bacterial contaminant.

Assignees

• Univ Illinois

Inventors

• Suslick Kenneth S
• Placek Matthew J
• Mcnamara Iii William B
• Sen Avijit
• Carey James R
• Wilson Jennifer B
• Keso Crystal K

Classifications

• C12Q1/10

  Enterobacteria · CPC title

• C12M37/04

  Seals · CPC title

• G01N2800/26

  Infectious diseases, e.g. generalised sepsis · CPC title

• G01N21/78

  producing a change of colour · CPC title

• C12M23/08 Primary

  Flask, bottle or test tube · CPC title