Analyzing and using motility kinematics of microorganisms

A method comprising:

• (a) subjecting a bodily sample of a human or an animal to one or more known antibiotics, the bodily sample containing one or more individual bacteria of one or more strains;
• (b) by an imaging device, capturing at successive times two or more digital images of the sample, including the one or more individual bacteria of one or more strains;
• (c) measuring physical trajectories for the one or more individual bacteria of one or more strains from the two or more captured images of the sample;
• (d) automatically by computer, generating motility kinematics data corresponding to the measured physical trajectories for at least one bacterium of the one or more individual bacteria of one or more strains;
• (e) determining from the motility kinematics data a physical motility of the at least one bacterium of the one or more individual bacteria of one or more strains;
• and
• (f) determining a susceptibility of the at least one bacterium of the one or more individual bacteria to one or more known antibiotics by comparing the determined physical motility data to characteristic features of the microorganism at different successive times in a known database that includes quantitative properties of absolute and relative changes for multiple swimming kinematic parameters including at least one of:
• trajectory, speed, acceleration, mean square displacement, swimming direction, rate of turning, angle of turning, temporal sequence of turning angles, diffusivity, net to-gross-displacement ratio, curvature concentration of bacteria that exhibit motion, a ratio of a number of bacteria that exhibit motion to a number of bacteria that do not exhibit motion,
• wherein minimum inhibitory concentration of the antibiotic for the bacterium is computed and compared to control ranges to indicate antibiotic susceptibility.