Methods and devices for the rapid separation and detection of microbial cells

Abstract

Methods are provided for the rapid detection of microbial cells. In some embodiments, microbial cells are obtained from a sample and inoculated onto a solid growth medium, incubated and monitored to detect microcolonies. Microbial cells from a microcolony ate harvested to provide microbial cells for rapid nucleic acid amplification and/or sequencing. The microbial cells may be obtained from a sample containing whole blood by lysing host blood cells with a blood lysis reagent and separating the microbial cells to obtain a suspension. A method of separating microbial cells from a whole blood sample is provided in which the whole blood sample is mixed with a blood lysis reagent containing saponin and sodium polyanethole sulfonate to form a first mixture, and subsequently mixed with an alkaline buffer to form a second mixture. A separation process is then employed to separate microbial cells from the second mixture.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.