Patent ID: 8158405

Claim:
A method of treating a liquid sample having non-target microbiological particles, inorganic particles, and microbiological target species therein, wherein said microbiological target species are cellular microbiological organisms, and wherein said microbiological target species comprise target materials enveloped therein, said method comprising: (a) passing said liquid sample through a prefilter medium to allow said microbiological target species to pass through as filtrate and to retain said non-target biological particles and said inorganic particles thereon; (b) contacting said filtrate of (a) with a main filtration medium adapted to retain said microbiological species thereon as retentate, wherein the retention enhancement agent comprises a member or members selected from the group consisting of surfactants, chelate reagents, salts and organic solvents; wherein the retention enhancement agent maintains the integrity of the microbiological target species therein during the contacting step of (b) and prevents the microbiological target species from irreversibly adhering to the main filtration medium; (c) lysing said retentate from step (b) on the main filtration medium to form a lysate containing said target materials; and (d) contacting said lysate with a post filtration medium to retain any unlysed material thereon while allowing passage of said lysate therethrough as filtrate.