CULTURE DEVICE CONTAINING OXYGEN SENSITIVE LUMINOPHORE AND METHODS OF USING

1 . A culture device comprising

a growth compartment surrounded by one or more oxygen impermeable barriers, at least one of the oxygen impermeable barriers being configurable between an open configuration where the growth compartment is exposed to an environment outside of the growth compartment and a closed configuration wherein the growth compartment is sealed from exchanging oxygen with the environment outside of the growth compartment;

a culture medium capable of supporting replication of at least one microorganism disposed within the growth compartment; and

an oxygen-sensitive dye disposed within the growth compartment.

2 . The culture device of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen sensitive dye comprises an oxygen sensitive luminophore.

3 . The culture device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the oxygen impermeable barriers is a coverslip that is configurable between a first position where the coverslip is on the growth compartment and a second configuration wherein the coverslip is at least partially detached from the growth compartment.

4 . The culture device of claim 1 wherein the culture medium comprises agar or a water-gelling thin film.

5 . The culture device of claim 1 wherein the oxygen-sensitive luminophore is an oxygen-sensitive phosphor.

6 . The culture device of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen-sensitive phosphor comprises at least one of a porphyrin, a pi-conjugated molecule, or a pi-conjugated polymer.

7 . The culture device of claim 6 , wherein the oxygen-sensitive phosphor comprises a porphyrin.

8 . The culture device of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen-sensitive dye comprises a pi-conjugated ligand.

9 . The culture device of claim 2 , further comprising a metal conjugated to the oxygen sensitive luminophore, wherein the metal is optionally a transition metal or lanthanide.

10 . The culture device of claim 8 , wherein the pi-conjugated molecule comprises a porphyrin.

11 . The culture device of claim 2 , wherein the oxygen sensitive luminophore is Pd-meso-tetra-(4-carboxypenyl)porphyrin dendrimer.

12 . The culture device of claim 1 , wherein the oxygen-sensitive dye comprises leuco-form indigo dye, leuco-form thioindigo dye, one or more complexes of bis(histadino) cobolt, or meso-tetra(α-α-α-α-o-pivalminophenyl) porphyrinatocobolt.

13 . The culture device of claim 1 , wherein no oxygen scavenging system is present within the growth compartment.

14 . The culture device of claim 2 , wherein the oxygen sensitive luminophore is present in the culture medium.

15 . The culture device of claim 1 , further comprising one or more adhesive matrixes within the growth compartment and wherein the oxygen sensitive luminophore is dispersed within at least one of the one or more adhesive matrixes.

16 . A method of detecting a microorganism comprising;

inoculating a culture device of claim 1 with a sample comprising a microorganisms while the culture device is in the open configuration;

converting the culture device to the closed configuration;

incubating the culture device for a sufficient time and at a sufficient temperature such that the oxygen-sensitive phosphor phosphoresces; and

detecting a change of absorption or emission of the oxygen-sensitive dye.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the change of absorption of emission is a change in emission, of an oxygen sensitive luminophore.

18 - 19 . (canceled)

20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises enumerating the microorganism.

21 . The method of claim 20 wherein enumerating the microorganism comprises determining a magnitude of the luminescence.

22 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the method does not include a step of placing the culture device within a reduced oxygen atmosphere.

23 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the method does not include a step of activating an oxygen scavenging reagent within the growth compartment.