Patent ID: 8017318
Filing Date: 2011-09-13
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
1. A method for diagnosing the presence of an organism or an infection, or presence of cells or contaminants in a crude biological sample wherein the presence of said organisms, infection, cells or contaminants is unknown by detecting and/or measuring an enzymatic function of one or more proteins comprising the following steps: a) preparing nucleic acid molecules from the crude biological sample comprising one or more genes coding for said one or more proteins corresponding to said enzymatic function and control sequences necessary for transcription and translation of said one or more genes; b) transcribing and translating in vitro the nucleic acid molecules prepared at step (a) to produce said one or more proteins if present; c) detecting and/or measuring the enzymatic function corresponding to said one or more proteins produced at step (b) wherein said detection and/or measuring is carried out with the aid of one or more reporter molecule(s), wherein said one or more reporter molecule(s) is present at one or more of steps (b) or (c), and optionally present at step (a), and wherein said one or more reporter molecule(s) detects the presence of said function; and d) diagnosing said presence of said organism or infection, or said presence of said cells or contaminants, wherein the presence of said organism or infection, or said presence of said cells or contaminants is unknown prior to performing steps a) through d), wherein the biological sample is taken from blood, tissues, urine, or any other bodily fluid, and wherein said method is performed without molecular cloning.