RAPID DETECTION OF REPLICATING CELLS

摘要

The invention provides efficient, rapid, and sensitive enumeration of living cells by detecting microscopic colonies derived from in situ cell division using large area imaging. Microbial enumeration tests based on the invention address an important problem in clinical and industrial microbiology - the long time needed for detection using traditional methods - while retaining k ey advantages of the traditional methods based om microbial culture. Embodiment s of the invention include non-destructive aseptic methods for detecting cellular microcolonies without labeling reagents. These methods allow for th e generation of pure cultures which can be used for microbial identification a nd determination of antimicrobial resistance.