초록 ▼

A process for rapidly enumerating viable biological entities is disclosed, wherein viability is determined by the critierion of growth of biological entities contained in microdroplets. Alternatively, in some cases, viability is determined by use of vital staining of biological entities contained in

A process for rapidly enumerating viable biological entities is disclosed, wherein viability is determined by the critierion of growth of biological entities contained in microdroplets. Alternatively, in some cases, viability is determined by use of vital staining of biological entities contained in microdroplets. The process involves formation of microdroplets, which are very small volume liquid or gel particles, such that some of the microdroplets contain biololgical entities, followed by measurements of biological entities and of microdroplet volumes, such that use of statistical analysis can be used self-consistently to determine the number of viable entities per volume of a sample.

대표청구항 ▼

A method of determining the number of viable biological entities capable of growth per volume of a sample, comprising: (a) forming microdroplets from a volume of the sample wherein some but not all of the microdroplets contain viable biological entities; (b) measuring the volumes of at least a porti

A method of determining the number of viable biological entities capable of growth per volume of a sample, comprising: (a) forming microdroplets from a volume of the sample wherein some but not all of the microdroplets contain viable biological entities; (b) measuring the volumes of at least a portion of the microdroplets formed in step (a) to obtain the volumes of the microdroplets; (c) measuring the amount of biological material which constitutes part of the viable biological entities in the microdroplets; and (d) determining the statistical distribution of the biological material in the microdroplet volumes as indicative of the number of viable biological entities per volume of the sample.