IN SITU HYBRIDIZATION METHODS FOR REDUCING THE OCCURRENCE OF FALSE POSITIVES AND FOR TARGETING MULTIPLE MICROORGANISMS

摘要

This invention provides novel methods for detecting microorganisms in biological samples. The methods utilize in situ hybridization techniques. In one preferred embodiment, the methods performing an in situ hybridization using two or more probes specific to the same target microorganism where the probes are each labeled with different and distinguishable label or are themselves different and distinguishable. When the probes co-localize to the same feature they are scored as positive for the target microorganism corresponding to those eprobes. Where only a single probe localizes to the target the result is scored as negative and/or, optionally subject to re-testing or other further analysis.