Patent Document ID: 8821703
Application ID: 12667944
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for identifying a biological source organism from bioparticles shed by the organism into the environment, the apparatus comprising: a particle collector configured to collect a sample containing a plurality of bioparticles; a selection and concentration system coupled to the particle collector, configured to select one or more information-rich bioparticles from the plurality of bioparticles; a bioparticle signature detector coupled to the selection and concentration system, the bioparticle signature detector comprising means for restricting the movement of the information-rich bioparticles and means for detecting a plurality of bioparticle signatures therefrom, wherein the bioparticle signature detector comprises a dielectrophoresis chamber for restricting movement of the one or more information-rich bioparticles, the dielectrophoresis chamber comprises an element placed within an electromagnetic field, and the element comprises an insulator or a protuberance extending from the wall of the chamber into the electromagnetic field; and a pattern recognition system linked to the bioparticle signature detector and configured to derive a multi-dimensional vector from the bioparticle signatures by combining bioparticle signatures and compare said multi-dimensional vector with a standard multi-dimensional vector in order to identify, from the one or more information-rich bioparticles, the biological source organism from which the bioparticles were shed.