Systems and methods for a continuous culture biosensor
AssigneeUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac
InventorsHolly Vee Goodson, Julia Theresa Ott Philip
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A continuous culture system of genetically modified yeast or another biological organism detects contaminants in water through production of a fluorescent chemical continuously produced by the organism after it is contacted with a threshold concentration of a contaminant. Alternatively, a biological organism can detect toxins or extra nutrients by detecting a change in growth rate. Biological organisms can also be measured for mutagenic changes by comparing their genome with a control sample. A network of continuous culture systems may be used as part of a water contamination detection system for real-time water monitoring of contaminants from multiple sources simultaneously.
Claims39
A method of creating and maintaining a continuous culture system for toxin detection, the method comprising:
- contacting an aqueous culture of biological organisms in a chamber with an aqueous solution or continuous stream that may contain a toxin;
- feeding nutrients to the biological organisms to sustain their viability;
- calculating the growth rate of the biological organisms by periodically measuring the relative density or population of the biological organisms and comparing the results to past ones;
- and
- transmitting the discovery of a drop in yeast population, or a lower growth rate than expected from the nutrients, to a centralized computer or location.
A method of creating and maintaining a continuous culture system for toxin detection, the method comprising:
- contacting an aqueous culture of biological organisms that have been genetically modified or selected to produce a fluorescent chemical in response to a threshold level of a contaminant in a chamber with an aqueous solution or continuous stream that may contain a contaminant;
- emitting a light towards the chamber;
- measuring the presence of a fluorescent chemical that was produced by the biological organisms in response to the organism coming into contact with a threshold level the contaminant;
- and
- transmitting the presence of the fluorescent chemical to a centralized computer or location.
A method of creating and maintaining a continuous culture system for eutrophication or nutrient detection, the method comprising:
- contacting an aqueous culture of biological organisms in a chamber with an aqueous solution or continuous stream that may contain a nutrient;
- feeding a limited amount of nutrients to the biological organisms to sustain their viability at a minimal growth rate;
- calculating the growth rate of the biological organisms by periodically measuring the relative density or population of the biological organisms and comparing the results to past ones;
- and
- transmitting the discovery of a higher growth rate than the minimal growth rate expected from the limited feed of nutrients to a centralized computer or location.
A method of creating and maintaining a continuous culture system for mutagenic detection, the method comprising:
- contacting an aqueous culture of biological organisms in a chamber with an aqueous solution or continuous stream that may contain a mutagenic agent;
- feeding nutrients to the biological organisms to sustain their viability;
- periodically measuring the genetic variability of the biological organisms;
- and
- assessing the amount of genetic change by comparing to those seen in a control sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.