Methods for microbial screening and identification of targets of interest

Abstract

Methods of detecting the presence of microorganisms in a sample, the methods including combining a sample, a reducing agent, an oxidant generator and a chemiluminescent agent, and in some cases a shielding agent, wherein the reducing agent both reduces the oxidant generator to produce an oxidant and reduces one or more disulfide bonds on a surface of a microorganism and wherein the oxidant oxidizes the chemiluminescent agent to produce a luminescent compound; and detecting the presence or absence of a signal to indicate the presence or absence of microorganisms in the sample, wherein the intensity of the chemiluminescent signal is inversely proportional to the amount of microorganisms in the sample.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.