Biosensor method and system based on feature vector extraction

• US 20070105184A1
• Filed: 08/31/2005
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Tennessee Research Foundation (University of Tennessee), UT-Battelle LLC
• Original Assignee: University of Tennessee Research Foundation (University of Tennessee)
• Inventors: Rodriguez, Miguel, Wang, Xiaoling, Greenbaum, Elias, Hairong, Qi
• Granted Patent: US 8,158,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 435/29
• CPC Class Codes: C12Q 1/025 for testing or evaluating the effect of chemical or biological compounds, e.g. drugs, cosmetics antimicrobial activity C12Q1/18

Abstract

A method of biosensor-based detection of toxins comprises the steps of providing at least one time-dependent control signal generated by a biosensor in a gas or liquid medium, and obtaining a time-dependent biosensor signal from the biosensor in the gas or liquid medium to be monitored or analyzed for the presence of one or more toxins selected from chemical, biological or radiological agents. The time-dependent biosensor signal is processed to obtain a plurality of feature vectors using at least one of amplitude statistics and a time-frequency analysis. At least one parameter relating to toxicity of the gas or liquid medium is then determined from the feature vectors based on reference to the control signal.

Claims

1. A method of biosensor-based detection of toxins, comprising the steps of:

providing at least one time-dependent control signal generated by a biosensor in a gas or liquid medium;

obtaining a time-dependent biosensor signal from said biosensor in said gas or liquid medium to be monitored or analyzed for the presence of one or more toxins selected from chemical, biological or radiological agents;

processing said time-dependent biosensor signal to obtain a plurality of feature vectors using at least one of amplitude statistics and a time-frequency analysis, and

determining at least one parameter relating to toxicity of said gas or liquid medium from said feature vectors based on reference to said control signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said time-frequency analysis comprises wavelet coefficient analysis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein both said amplitude statistics and time-frequency analysis are used in said processing step.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said liquid medium is water.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said biosensors comprise naturally-occurring, free-living, indigenous photosynthetic organisms in said water.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said time-dependent biosensor signal comprises fluorescence induction data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying which of said toxins are present in said gas or liquid medium.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a linear discriminant method is used for said identifying step.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said linear discriminant method comprises support vector machine (SVM) classification.

10. A water or air quality sensor system, comprising:

a biosensor in an air or water medium to be monitored or analyzed for the presence of one or more toxins selected from chemical, biological or radiological agents;

a detector proximate to said biosensor for measuring a time-dependent biosensor signal from said biosensor, and

a processor for analyzing said time-dependent biosensor signal to obtain a plurality of feature vectors using at least one of amplitude statistics and time-frequency analysis, said processor determining at least one parameter relating to toxicity of said air or water medium from said feature vectors.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a memory for storing at least one time-dependent control signal, wherein said processor analyzes said time-dependent biosensor signal to obtain said parameter from said feature vectors based on reference to said control signal.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said system includes a classifier for identifying which of said toxins are present in said air or water medium.