Measuring Physical Properties of Individual Bacteria

In this application note from Affinity Biosensors, the ARCHIMEDES particle metrology system is used to simultaneously measure the mass of individual bacterium to a precision of less than 1% and monitor the concentration and growth rate of a culture. A culture was started by inoculating fresh Luria broth with a small number of E. coli taken from a culture already in an exponential growth phase. Every four minutes, the fluidics sampled the bacteria culture, and measured the buoyant masses of individual bacteria.