Patent ID: 6750006
Filing Date: 2004-06-15
Classification: C12Q,G01N

Abstract:
A method for the detection and enumeration of microbes comprising:a. exciting at least one intrinsic microbial fluorophore having a specific excitation range of electromagnetic radiation wavelength above 200 nm; whereby said intrinsic fluorophore in the microbes is excited to emit fluorescence; and b. detecting the signal intensities associated with the minima and maxima of the microbial fluorescence; and c. detecting the background intensities at the minima and maxima of the microbial fluorescence in the absence of excitation; and d. calculating the intensities of the reflectance and scattering at the maxima of the microbial fluorescence from the intensities of the background-subtracted minima with an appropriate algorithm; and e. subtracting the calculated reflected and scattered signal intensities and measured background intensities from the detected signals of the microbial fluorescence; thereby determining the number of microbes by the magnitude of the detected fluorescence from which background, reflectance, and scattering contributions have been subtracted.