| Author(s): |
Matthew L. Clarke; Robert L. Burton; A. N. Hill; Maritoni A. Litorja; Moon H. Nahm; Jeeseong Hwang; |
| Title: |
Low-Cost, High-Throughput, Automated Counting of Bacterial Colonies |
| Published: |
January 05, 2010 |
| Abstract: |
Research involving bacterial pathogens often requires enumeration of bacteria colonies. Here we present a low-cost, high-throughput colony counting system consisting of colony counting software and a consumer-grade digital camera or document scanner. We demonstrate that this software, called NICE (NIST s Integrated Colony Enumerator), can count bacterial colonies as part of a high-throughput multiplexed opsonophagocytic killing assay (MOPA), which is used to characterize pneumococcal vaccine efficacy. The results obtained with NICE correlate well with the results obtained from manual counting, with a mean difference of less than 3%. NICE is also rapid; it can count colonies from multiple reaction wells within minutes and export the results to a spreadsheet for data processing. As this program is freely available from NIST, NICE should be helpful in bacteria colony enumeration required in many microbiological studies, and in standardizing colony counting methods. |
| Citation: |
Cytometry Part A |
| Volume: |
77A |
| Issue: |
8 |
| Pages: |
pp. 790 - 797 |
| Keywords: |
bacteria; colony counting; imaging; MOPA; pneumoniae; software; vaccine |
| Research Areas: |
Optical Metrology, Biological Product Characterization, Imaging |
| PDF version: |
 Click here to retrieve PDF version of paper (953KB) |
