Systems and methods for detecting toxins in a sample

• US 20080288528A1
• Filed: 05/18/2007
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Original Assignee: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Inventors: Gallager, Scott
• Application Number:
  US11/804,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20080288528A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/1866 using microorganisms

Abstract

In one aspect the invention provides a system for detecting the presence of toxins in a sample that includes a plurality of chambers for culturing organisms and observing the organism'"'"'s motility response when introduced into a sample containing a toxin. The toxicity measurement system may include an imaging module to monitor and track the movement of one or more organisms in the sample and identify abnormalities. In other aspects, the invention provides methods of culturing organisms and detecting the presence of toxins in the sample using the motility response of organisms in the sample.

Claims

1. A method of detecting the presence of a toxin in a sample, comprising

providing a chamber including a sample and an organism having a motility response to a toxin in the sample,

acquiring an image showing an organism in the sample at a first instance in time,

measuring based on the image at least one of a centroid, a size of the organism, a shape of the organism and an orientation of the organism,

determining a path characteristic based at least on the image and a similar image from another instance in time, and

detecting the presence of the toxin in the sample based at least on the path characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring an image includes obtaining an electronic image using a camera.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a path characteristic includes determining a path of an organism using at least one of a nearest neighbor distance algorithm, voronoi tessellation algorithm and an autocorrelation algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the path characteristic includes at least one of speed, acceleration, direction, displacement and rate of change of direction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a path characteristic includes estimating the path characteristic, based on a mathematical model of the movement of the organism and the captured image.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the mathematical model comprises dynamical system models including Kalman filter based model.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring a net to gross displacement ratio of the path characteristic.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein detecting the presence of a toxin includes comparing the net to gross displacement ratio to a threshold.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the motility response includes at least one of speed, acceleration, direction, displacement and rate of change of direction.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the organism includes at least one of a single celled organism, multi-celled organism, fresh water organism and salt water organism.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the organism includes at least one of a ciliate, flagellate and marine algae.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the ciliate includes at least one of Tetrahymena pyriformis, Tetrahymena malaccensus, Tetrahymena furgisoni, and Glaucoma.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the flagellate includes at least one of Tetramitus and Bodo.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the marine algae includes at least one of Chlorophycia, rhodomonas, heterocapsa, dunaliella, and chlamydomonas.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising the step of building a database of toxins, including

providing a set of toxins,

providing at least one organism having a motility response to at least one of the set of toxins

introducing the organism to the at least one of the set of toxins

measuring the motility response of the at least one organism to the at least one of the set of toxins, and

building a database having the at least one of the set of toxins and the corresponding motility response of the at least one organism.

16. The method of claim 1, comprising the step of identifying a toxin in a sample, including

providing a chamber including the sample and an organism having a motility response to a toxin in the sample,

capturing an image of a portion of the chamber having the organism moving in the sample, and

identifying a toxin in the sample by comparing the motility response of the organism to a motility response of an organism in a database of toxins.