Method and apparatus for detecting and quantifying bacterial spores on a surface

1. A method for detecting and quantifying individual bacterial spores comprising:

capturing the bacterial spores;

transferring the bacterial spores to a test surface;

providing one or more lanthanide ions on the test surface;

releasing aromatic molecules from the bacterial spores on the test surface;

forming a complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and the aromatic molecules on the test surface;

exciting the complex to generate a characteristic luminescence of the complex on the test surface; and

detecting and quantifying the individual bacterial spores by imaging the bacterial spores via luminescence spots surrounding the bacterial spores, said luminescent spots generated on the test surface through lifetime-gated imaging, with a micrometric spatial resolution.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the capturing of the bacterial spores comprises transferring bacterial spores from a second surface by way of an adhesive polymer.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the adhesive polymer is selected from the group consisting of PDMS, agar and agarose.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the capturing of the bacterial spores comprises transferring bacterial spores from a second surface by way of a swab.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising transferring the bacterial spores from the swab into water.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the water is passed through a water filter.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the capturing of the bacterial spores is from a place of origin selected from the group consisting of water and air.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the transferring of the bacterial spores is from a place of origin to a filter selected from the group consisting of an air filter and a water filter.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test surface comprises at least one adhesive polymer selected from the group consisting of PDMS, agar, agarose, PDMS together with agar, and PDMS together with agarose.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test surface comprises at least one partially transparent adhesive polymer.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more lanthanide ions are provided to the test surface prior to the bacterial spores, after the bacterial spores, or as a mixture with the bacterial spores.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more lanthanide ions are terbium or europium or a mixture thereof.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aromatic molecules are selected from the group consisting of dipicolinic acid, dipicolinate, and dipicolinic acid together with dipicolinate.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aromatic molecules interact with the test surface resulting in a derivative of the aromatic molecules.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aromatic molecules are released from the bacterial spores by germination of the bacterial spores.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the germination of the bacterial spores is induced by way of a germinating agent selected from the group consisting of L-alanine, L-asparagine and D-glucose.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aromatic molecules are released from the bacterial spores by lysis of the bacterial spores.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the lysis of the bacterial spores is induced by way of a method of lysis selected from the group consisting of microwaving, autoclaving, sonication, plasma cleaning dry heating and hydrogen chloride gasing.

19. The method of claim 9 wherein the test surface further comprises at least one lanthanide ion and a germinating agent.

20. The method of claim 9 wherein the test surface further comprises at least one lanthanide ion and is subject to a method of lysis.

21. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the complex is excited by UV light.

22. The method of claim 2 wherein the adhesive polymer is the test surface.

23. The method of claim 3 wherein the adhesive polymer is the test surface.

24. The method of claim 8 , wherein the filter is the test surface.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein the releasing of aromatic molecules from the bacterial spores on the test surface is by germination of the bacterial spores on the test surface;

wherein the complex is a first complex;

wherein the method further comprises:

releasing aromatic molecules from nongerminated spores on the test surface by lysis;

forming a second complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and lysis-released aromatic molecules on the test surface;

exciting the second complex to generate a characteristic luminescence of the second complex on the test surface; and

detecting and quantifying the bacterial spores by imaging the bacterial spores, via the luminescence of the second complex on the test surface by lifetime-gated imaging.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the test surface comprises terbium or europium ions;

wherein the aromatic molecules are DPA and/or DP molecules;

wherein the exciting of the first and second complex is with UV radiation;

the method further comprising the step of dividing the quantified luminescence of the first complex by the sum of the luminescence of the first and second complexes.

27. A method of claim 26 wherein the quantifying of the bacterial spores represented by the generated luminescence comprises counting the number of luminescent spots and the number of spores per luminescent spot can be estimated by the spot intensity.

28. An apparatus for detecting and quantifying individual bacterial spores according to the method of claim 1 , comprising:

a test surface, wherein the test surface comprises one or more adhesive polymers, one or more lanthanide ions, bacterial spores and aromatic molecule released from said bacterial spores

an ultraviolet light radiation device adjacent to the test surface to excite a complex of lanthanide ions and aromatic molecules and generate a characteristic luminescence of the complex;

an life-time gated imaging device for imaging the luminescence.

29. An apparatus of claim 28 wherein a microscope is connected to the life-time gated imaging device.

30. A method for detecting and quantifying bacterial spores comprising:

providing the bacterial spores on a test surface, each bacterial spore having a spore body;

providing one or more lanthanide ions on the test surface;

releasing aromatic molecules from the spore body of a bacterial spore onto the test surface, the released aromatic molecules defining on the test surface a surrounding area around the spore body of the bacterial spore;

forming a complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and the aromatic molecules on the surrounding area;

exciting the complex to generate a characteristic luminescence of the complex on the surrounding area; and

detecting and quantifying the bacterial spores by imaging surrounding areas through lifetime-gated imaging with a micrometric spatial resolution.

31. The method of claim 30 , wherein imaging surrounding areas is performed by imaging individual surrounding areas.

32. The method of claim 30 , wherein imaging surrounding areas is performed by imaging surrounding areas of individual spores clustered together on the test surface.

33. The method of claim 30 , wherein the bacterial spores are embedded in the test surface.

34. The method of claim 30 , wherein the test surface is an adhesive polymer.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the adhesive polymer is optically transparent.

36. The method of claim 30 , wherein the releasing of aromatic molecules from the bacterial spores on the test surface is by germination of the bacterial spores on the test surface; and wherein the complex is a first complex;

wherein the method further comprises:

releasing aromatic molecules from nongerminated spores on the test surface by lysis the released aromatic molecules defining on the test surface a surrounding area around the spore body;

forming a complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and the aromatic molecules on the surrounding area;

exciting the complex to generate a characteristic luminescence of the complex on the surrounding area; and

detecting and quantifying the bacterial spores by imaging surrounding areas through lifetime-gated imaging.

37. A method for detecting and quantifying bacterial spores, the method comprising

providing the bacterial spores, each bacterial spore having a spore body;

providing one or more lanthanide ions;

releasing aromatic molecules from the spore body

forming a complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and the aromatic molecules;

exciting the complex to generate a characteristic luminescence of the complex; and

detecting and quantifying bacterial spores by imaging the bacterial spores through lifetime-gated imaging,

wherein

releasing aromatic molecules from the spore body is performed on a test surface to generate on the test surface an aromatic molecules concentration region around the spore body

the complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and the aromatic molecules is formed on said region, and

detecting and quantifying bacterial spores is performed by imaging the aromatic molecules concentration regions on the test surface with a micrometric spatial resolution.

38. The method of claim 37 , wherein the imaged aromatic molecules concentration regions are individual aromatic molecules concentration regions.

39. The method of claim 37 , wherein the imaged aromatic molecules concentration regions are aromatic molecules concentration regions of individual bacterial spores clustered together on the test surface.

40. The method of claim 37 , wherein the bacterial spores are embedded in the test surface.

41. The method of claim 37 , wherein the test surface is an adhesive polymer.

42. The method of claim 41 , wherein the adhesive polymer is optically transparent.

43. The method of claim 37 , wherein the releasing of aromatic molecules from the bacterial spores on the test surface is by germination of the bacterial spores on the test surface; and wherein the complex is a first complex;

wherein the method further comprises:

releasing aromatic molecules from nongerminated spores on the test surface by lysis to generate on the test surface aromatic molecules concentration regions around each spore body;

forming a second complex of the one or more lanthanide ions and lysis-released aromatic molecules on said concentration regions;

exciting the second complex to generate a characteristic luminescence of the second complex on the concentration regions; and

detecting and quantifying the bacterial spores by imaging the aromatic molecules concentration regions on the test surface.