Patent ID: 7634125

Claim:
An imaging system configured to acquire and analyze image data collected from a population of cells, where the image data include a plurality of images of individual cells that are acquired simultaneously, to enable a disease condition to be detected, comprising: (a) a collection lens disposed so that light traveling from an individual cell passes through the collection lens and travels along a collection path; (b) a light dispersing element disposed in the collection path so as to disperse the light that has passed through the collection lens, thereby producing dispersed light; (c) an imaging lens disposed to focus the dispersed light, producing focused dispersed light; (d) a detector disposed to receive the focused dispersed light, such that the focused dispersed light incident on the detector simultaneously comprises a plurality of images of the individual cell, the plurality of images comprising the image data; and (e) a processor configured to analyze the image data for the plurality of images collected from individual cells in the population of cells, to determine if the image data indicate that the population of cells exhibit the disease condition.