MicroStreak® technology
LBT Innovations is currently working with French diagnostics giant bioMérieux to commercialise the Company's lead technology, known as MicroStreak®. This invention is a fully automated system for streaking biological samples onto agar plates (known also as pre-poured media or PPM plates) and represents a significant leap forward for clinical microbiology. This application of the technology has been exclusively licensed to bioMérieux. bioMerieux has named the system as PREVI™ Isola, incorporating it into its PREVI™ range of automated laboratory equipment.
The PREVI™ Isola is a free-standing unit with a footprint of just 1.4 x 0.9m. The laboratory worker loads a cassette of streaking applicators and a stack of agar plates, as well as a rack of patient samples in appropriate tubes. The machine accepts a range of the most commonly used sample tubes.
The central task performed by PREVI™ Isola is to inoculate each sample onto an agar plate and streak the sample using a patented, single-use, sterile plastic applicator. This ensures a reproducible and superior streaking pattern that facilitates the standardisation of procedures within a laboratory. The machine also performs a number of non-core tasks that give it greater versatility and value as a laboratory tool.
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The MicroStreak® circular streaking pattern (left) is quite different from a manual streaking pattern (right). It reproducibly gives scientists superior numbers of distinct bacterial colonies and hence the opportunity to identify more of the varieties that are present. |
The circular streaking pattern produced by the PREVI™ Isola is unique, and quite distinct from the pattern produced by manual streaking. Experiments published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology (Glasson et al., 2008) have shown that the instrument is not only faster, but more effective than the manual method. It utilises a greater proportion of the agar plate surface, producing on average more colonies than manual streaking. This increases the opportunity to identify pathogens within a mixed bacterial population, and thus could potentially improve diagnostic accuracy. The study also showed that the uniformity of the machine-streaking could be very valuable for the correct diagnosis of urinary tract problems. This requires an accurate count of urine bacteria, which can be difficult with manually streaked plates, due to the variation inherent in this procedure.
PREVI™ Isola technology poster, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany
