METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CLASSIFYING A SCENARIO

摘要

Living cells can be used to identify or quantify bioactive conditions, including without limitation, chemicals, biological pathogens, and environmental conditions, such as pH, in samples based on changes in, for example, cell color, morphology and/or physiology. Such changes can be directly detected or detected with the aid of instrumentation. One embodiment of the method comprises exposing a system to a bioactive condition, such as a chemical agent, a biological pathogen, an environmental condition, such as pH, etc., and combinations of such conditions. The system then exhibits a response to the bioactive condition. The response of the system, or a portion thereof, to the bioactive condition is then represented, such as by digital images. The method then involves attempting to classify a scenario by database comparison. Classification can be in terms of numeric or non-numerical classifiers. Typically, the system comprises living cells. Living cells useful for practicing the method experience a detectable change in response to an interaction with a bioactive condition. A likely living cell for use with the method and apparatus of the present invention is a chromatophore. The present method has a number of uses, including classifying unknown drug candidates, classifying unknown toxins, classifying chemical warfare agents, etc. The method a can be implemented using a computer program encoding the method. Moreover, a computer-readable medium is described on which is stored a computer program having instructions for executing the method. A cytosensor apparatus also is described.