Performance of four bacterial cell counting apps for smartphones

Michael Moucka; Veronika Muigg; Ann-Kathrin Schlotterbeck; Laurent Stöger; Alexander Gensch; Stefanie Heller; Adrian Egli

doi:10.1016/j.mimet.2022.106508

Performance of four bacterial cell counting apps for smartphones

J Microbiol Methods. 2022 Aug:199:106508. doi: 10.1016/j.mimet.2022.106508. Epub 2022 Jun 9.

Authors

Michael Moucka¹, Veronika Muigg², Ann-Kathrin Schlotterbeck³, Laurent Stöger³, Alexander Gensch³, Stefanie Heller³, Adrian Egli⁴

Affiliations

¹ Applied Microbiology Research, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: Michael.Moucka@stud.unibas.ch.
² Clinical Bacteriology and Mycology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
³ Applied Microbiology Research, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
⁴ Applied Microbiology Research, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Clinical Bacteriology and Mycology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: Adrian.Egli@usb.ch.

PMID: 35691441
DOI: 10.1016/j.mimet.2022.106508

Abstract

Quantifying bacterial colony forming units is important in microbiological diagnostics. Recent progress in imaging technology allows automation of this tedious and error-prone task. We compared the accuracy of four smartphone colony counter applications conducting standardized measurements, using a self-built apparatus. One app showed high accuracy at lower colony counts.

Keywords: App; Automated colony counting; Bacterial colonies; Colony counter app; Quantification; Smartphone.

MeSH terms

Automation
Bacteria
Cell Count
Mobile Applications*
Smartphone*