Turbidimetric analysis of growth kinetics of bacteria in the laboratory environment using smartphone

• Published in: Journal of biophotonics Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. e201960159 - n/a
• Main Authors: Hatiboruah, Diganta, Devi, Damayanti Y., Namsa, Nima D., Nath, Pabitra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA 01-04-2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Bacteria; CFU Luria‐broth medium; Correlation analysis; Growth kinetics; Growth rate; Kinetics; Laboratories; light scattering; optical density; Semisolids; smartphone; Smartphones; CFU Luria-broth medium; light scattering; smartphone; bacteria; optical density
• ISSN: 1864-063X; 1864-0648
• DOI: 10.1002/jbio.201960159

For different microbiological and pathological studies, it is often required to monitor the growth of bacteria in a cultured medium in the laboratory environment. UV‐VIS spectrophotometer is commonly used to estimate the growth of bacterial cell population by measuring the absorbance at 600 nm over a period of time. Colony‐forming unit (CFU) is another approach, which has been routinely performed to estimate the live bacterial cells on semisolid agar plates. Herein, we demonstrate an alternative yet highly reliable sensing platform on a smartphone using which growth kinetics of different bacteria can be reliably monitored. The performance of the proposed smartphone sensor has been compared with the data obtained from OD600 and CFU analysis. A good correlation of bacterial growth rates enumerated based on the proposed smartphone sensor, bench‐top spectrophotometer and CFU analysis have been observed under the experimental conditions.
Schematic of the proposed smartphone platform sensing system. The figure also includes the sensor responses while monitoring the growth evolution and the number of colonies formed of E. coli at different time points recorded by the sensor under standard laboratory conditions.