Biospherics Incorporated

Joseph R Schrot

There is disclosed a process for the rapid identification of a microorganism and an apparatus for performing the method. The process comprises inoculating a number of different .sup.14 C labeled substrates with an unknown organism, at least some of said .sup.14 C labeled substrates being capable of being metabolized to .sup.14 CO.sub.2 by certain specific microorganisms. The substrates are incubated for a time sufficient to cause metabolic breakdown of at least some of said substrates resulting in the production of .sup.14 CO.sub.2 and analysis for radioactivity in the .sup.14 CO.sub.2 which is evolved from those substrates which are metabolized is performed to determine which substrates are metabolized and which substrates are not metabolized by the unknown microorganisms. There is thereby obtained a substrate radiorespirometric profile for the unknown microorganisms which is compared to standard radiorespirometric profiles for known organisms to determine to which standard radiorespirometric profile the radiorespirometric profile for said unknown microorganisms corresponds. The apparatus includes trays for incubating the organisms in a selection of substrates, the trays having covers for collecting the evolved .sup.14 CO.sub.2, conveyor means for transporting the covers to particle detectors, drive means for stepwise advancing the covers to sequentially expose the collection zones thereon to the detectors, counters for accumulating records of radiation levels, a data file of organism and substrate profiles, and means for comparing the profiles with the accumulated counts.

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Silver Spring, MD, United States of America

Joseph R Schrot