Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Apparatus – Including measuring or testing
Patent
1997-10-31
1999-06-29
Beisner, William H.
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Apparatus
Including measuring or testing
435 29, 435 33, 4352887, 119200, 119267, 356442, 702 2, 702 19, C12M 134, C12Q 120
Patent
active
059168013
ABSTRACT:
A computer interfaced device for rapidly quantifying levels of toxicity to small aquatic organisms in aqueous environments. The device has a plurality of test chambers containing replicates of a plurality of concentrations of a substance or sample being tested for toxicity. Each chamber also contains a predetermined number of motile aquatic organisms. Light originating on one side of each test chamber is received by a photo-detector on the opposite side. The device's sensitivity is adjusted so that each interruption of a light beam caused by movement of a test organism in each test chamber is recorded for that chamber. Using this device and a toxicity testing protocol both lethality and changes in the frequency of test organism's movement in each concentration of substance or sample is monitored. Toxicity is by convention quantified as the concentration of a substance or sample which causes a predetermined level of lethal or sublethal response usually after a plurality of days. Using simple statistical software, the level of lethality which will occur following a plurality of days of exposure to each concentration can be predicted from motility data generated within just a few hours (usually 2.5 Hours) of exposing test organisms to the substance or sample. The computer includes software responsive to light beam interruption for deriving a set of parameters useful for predicting lethality. The device and accompanying software permits toxicity of a substance or sample to be quantified rapidly from motility data, long before lethality occurs.
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LoPinto Richard William
Santelli John Christopher
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