Patent ID: 11952610
Assignee: BIO-RAD EUROPE GMBH
Field: Biotechnology (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C | IPC C

Claim 0:
1. A method for rapidly assaying a target microorganism for a minimum inhibitory concentration of a test antimicrobial, the method comprising:
i) encapsulating a plurality of the target microorganisms in a plurality of water-in-oil emulsion droplets,
wherein the water-in-oil emulsion droplets further encapsulate a microbiological growth medium;
wherein:
a) a first portion of the water-in-oil droplets encapsulate the test antimicrobial at a first concentration, or do not encapsulate the test antimicrobial;
b) a second portion of the water-in-oil droplets encapsulate the test antimicrobial at a second concentration different than the first concentration;
wherein the target microorganism is a bacterium or a yeast; and

ii) incubating the plurality of water-in-oil emulsion droplets at a temperature permissive of microbiological growth in an absence of the test antimicrobial, and for a period of time sufficient to allow the target microorganisms, if not inhibited by the test antimicrobial, to divide from 5 to 20 times, or more; and
iii) determining from the incubated water-in-oil emulsion droplets by measuring autofluorescence:
a number of water-in-oil emulsion droplets that have an increase in microorganisms that results in increased autofluorescence, thereby determining a number of positive droplets; and
a number of water-in-oil emulsion droplets that have no increase in microorganisms and no increase in autofluorescence, thereby determining a number of negative droplets;

iv) determining the number of positive droplets and negative droplets at the tested antimicrobial concentrations; thereby assaying the minimum inhibitory concentration of the test antimicrobial.