Patent ID: 8632988

Claim:
A method of screening a mammalian subject for susceptibility to systemic infection by Staphylococcus aureus comprising: (a) providing purified hemoglobin from the subject; (b) contacting the hemoglobin with the Staphylococcus aureus and (c) measuring the binding affinity between the hemoglobin and the Staphylococcus aureus , wherein an increased binding affinity between the hemoglobin and the Staphylococcus aureus compared to the binding affinity between the hemoglobin and a control is indicative of the enhanced susceptibility of the subject to the Staphylococcus aureus , wherein the control is an average of binding affinities between the Staphylococcus aureus and purified hemoglobin from a predetermined population of the mammalian subject.