Scientific research

Real-Time Digital Bright Field Technology for Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing.

Canali, C., Spillum, E., Valvik, M., Agersnap, N., & Olesen, T. (2018).

Antibiotic Resistance Protocols (pp. 75-84). Humana Press, New York, NY

Optical scanning through bacterial samples and image-based analysis may provide a robust method for bacterial identification, fast estimation of growth rates and their modulation due to the presence of antimicrobial agents. Here, we describe an automated digital, time-lapse, bright field imaging system (oCelloScope, BioSense Solutions ApS, Farum, Denmark) for rapid and higher throughput antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) of up to 96 bacteria–antibiotic combinations at a time. 

The imaging system consists of a digital camera, an illumination unit and a lens where the optical axis is tilted 6.25° relative to the horizontal plane of the stage. Such tilting grants more freedom of operation at both high and low concentrations of microorganisms. When considering a bacterial suspension in a microwell, the oCelloScope acquires a sequence of 6.25°-tilted images to form an image Z-stack.