Composition useful for, among other things, culturing and enumerating microorganisms, and associated methods.

A method of diagnosing the presence or absence of colon polyps by using a machine learning model, which is performed by a diagnostic apparatus, includes: analyzing a mixture of a sample collected from a subject and a gut environment-like composition; extracting a plurality of microbial data based on an analysis result of the mixture; selecting a microbe-related feature to be used for the machine learning model from the plurality of microbial data based on a predetermined feature selection algorithm; training the machine learning model by using the microbe-related feature to predict the presence or absence of colon polyps for each of the microbial data; and diagnosing the presence or absence of colon polyps based on an output value of the machine learning model by inputting, into the trained machine learning model, the microbial data extracted based on the analysis result of the mixture of the sample collected from the subject and the gut environment-like composition, wherein the microbe-related feature includes the content of at least one kind of microbes selected from families belonging to the order Oscillospirales, the order Burkholderiales, the order Saccharimonadales, the order Lactobacillales, the order Bacteroidales, the order Clostridiales, the order Erysipelotrichales, the order Bacteroidales and the order Lachnospirales.

The present disclosure relates to methods of collecting and testing bacteria containing samples from within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of a subject. The methods may include disposing an ingestible device in the GI tract, collecting a bacteria-containing sample from the GI tract, selectively lysing eukaryotic cells in the sample by combining the sample with a dried reagent, exposing bacteria in the sample to resazurin in the ingestible device to produce resorufin, emitting light from the ingestible device, the emitted light being filtered through an optical filter to control for scatter so that the light interacts with the resorufin to produce fluorescence, and measuring a total fluorescence from the resorufin; or a rate of change of fluorescence from the resorufin as a function of time within the GI tract of the subject; and correlating the measured parameter to a number of viable bacterial cells in the sample.

An apparatus for testing for the presence of pathogens in test liquids is described. Also described is a method for testing for the presence of pathogens in test liquids. Also described is a hydrogel for testing for the presence of pathogens in test liquids.

The present disclosure provides methods, compositions, and kits for in vitro cultivation of catalase-negative bacteria. The present disclosure further provides catalase-negative bacteria cultivated according to the methods described herein and bacterial stocks thereof.

The present invention is related to a nuclease-activated culture substrate, a method of rapidly detecting an antibiotic-resistant microorganism using the nuclease-activated culture substrate, and kits including the nuclease-activated culture substrate.

A medium containing (A) a chromogenic substance which develops a color when decomposed by β-glucosidase or a fluorogenic substance which develops a fluorescence when decomposed by β-glucosidase; (B) a chromogenic substance which develops a color when decomposed by phosphatidyl inositol-specific phospholipase C or a fluorogenic substance which develops a fluorescence when decomposed by phosphatidyl inositol-specific phospholipase C; and (C) a sugar that is useful for the detection of Listeria monocytogenes and/or Listeria ivanovii.

A system for generating and using an assay key comprising growth conditions for a set of microorganisms for a set of diverse QAC-based culture media under a variety of incubation conditions known to modulate the effect of QAC on growth of some microorganisms in the set. Each culture medium is characterized by a pH and includes one or more QACs and one or more growth supplements. The set of culture media includes media comprising various combinations of pH, QAC type, QAC concentration, growth supplement type, and growth supplement concentration. The assay key can be used to identify a microorganism by inoculating a variety of growth media within the key and incubating the inoculated media under conditions within the key and comparing the resulting pattern of microorganism growth across the media and conditions with growth patterns for various known microorganisms across the media and conditions that are within the key.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a detection means whereby Staphylococcus aureus can be identified at a high accuracy. An aspect of the present invention relates to a medium for detecting S. aureus which comprises one or more kinds of nutrient components, a color developing agent capable of developing a color in the presence of α-glucosidase, a color developing agent capable of developing a color in the presence of phosphatase and 0.5 mg/cm.sup.3 or more of sodium colistin methanesulfonate. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a sheet for detecting S. aureus, said sheet comprising the aforesaid medium, and a method for detecting S. aureus with the use of the medium and sheet as described above.

Methods for processing and analyzing samples are presented, said methods useful for, among other uses, analysis of lipids and other analytes of a sample, said methods further useful for identification of microorganisms at the level of species, identification of microorganisms at a level other than species, detecting infections and other diseases, detecting and measuring growth of an organism, detecting and measuring an environmental response of an organism, determining and/or measuring antimicrobial resistance of a microorganism, and for other purposes.