Patent Application
20130224837
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tool and method, in particular an inoculation tool and its method of use.
2. Description of Related Art
Inoculation is the placement of a material into surroundings that are suitable for a particular purpose. That purpose may include, but is not limited to, growing, reproducing, storing, transporting or testing that material. For example, the material can be introduced into surroundings suited to its growth, such as a culture medium. The material can also be implanted in a person, animal, plant, food, or beverage to produce a disease for study or to stimulate disease resistance.
A variety of tools are used to manipulate a portion of microbial colonies, culture medium, biological and non-biological samples, plaque(s) and other material samples, which can take any form, for example, a liquid or solid. The purpose of the manipulation may include, but is not limited to, inoculation streaking or archiving. A loop, needle or pick is used to come in contact with the material, after which the tool is considered to be “inoculated”. The inoculated tip is either swiped across a plate, swirled into liquid media, stabbed into some solid media, or used to infect a plant, animal or person, or mixed with another microorganism, food or beverage, or otherwise manipulated.
The existing tools can be, for example, plastic inoculation loops, needles, picks or wooden toothpicks. These tools can be range in length from 3 inches to 11 inches. Typically, but not always, inoculation loops, needles and picks are made of plastic and are pre-sterilized and packaged either individually, in small packs of multiple units or in bulk. Toothpicks are made of wood, bamboo or plastic and may or may not be sterile. Toothpicks are often autoclaved for sterilization. The sterilized toothpicks are transported for use at another location, often but not always a biological hood, where they are usually used once and disposed of Similarly, pre-sterilized tools are opened in the biological hood or other location and are typically used once and disposed of Occasionally, used toothpicks or other tools are collected and autoclaved for reuse.
The existing tools and toothpicks require multiple steps when used. The tool is selected, it comes in contact with the sample material, and the tip is either swiped across a plate, swirled into liquid media, stabbed into some solid media, or used to infect a plant, animal or person, or mixed with another microorganism, food, or beverage or otherwise manipulated. One problem with the inoculation tools of the prior art is that they do not fit within the smaller sized test tubes that are often used in a laboratory. The 0.6 milliliter (ml), 1.5 ml or 2.0 ml test tubes are often utilized because the smaller test tubes can be transferred to a micro centrifuge to separate the solids that sink to the bottoms of the tubes from the liquids that rise to the top of the tubes. The solids and/or liquids can then be used in down stream testing. Thus, one cannot close the lids of test tubes over the existing inoculation tools in order to protect the culture from outside contaminants, evaporation during growth, sealing for long-term storage, or accidental loss of culture during centrifuging and prior to harvesting.
For inoculation tools used in the art, the pick must be broken in half prior to placing the half in the 0.6, 1.5 or 2.0 ml test tube. This can be a clumsy procedure because it is normally done under a biological hood, and can be especially difficult to manipulate once one end of the inoculation tool has already been inoculated. The inoculated half is then placed in a 0.6, 1.5 or 2.0 ml test tube and the lid of the test tube is closed. The final step is the disposal of the tool. These steps can be performed hundreds of times a day and lead to repetitive motion injuries. What is needed is an inoculation tool and method that eliminates the step of the inconvenient breaking of the inoculation tool.
To attempt to solve this problem, scientists will place an inoculated pick in its entirety in a larger 15 ml screw cap tube containing the growth media and screw the cap closed. When the organism and/or spent medium is ready for harvesting, the culture must be transferred from the 15 ml tube to a 0.6, 1.5 or 2.0 ml test tube for bench top centrifugation. This approach eliminates the clumsy toothpick breaking process but adds a time-consuming step of transferring the culture from the 15 ml to the 0.6, 1.5 or 2.0 ml test tube. This method also increases the overall cost of consumables by adding the 15 ml tube to the process. Considering that the above steps can be repeated hundreds of times each day, the amount of time and money spent during the process can be greatly reduced using an improved inoculation tool to solve these problems in the art.
What is needed is an inoculation tool and method that is more user- friendly, less time consuming, and reduces the number of consumables required to complete the process. With these goals in mind, the inventor created an improved inoculation tool and method that reduce the number of steps required to complete the inoculation, reduce repetitive motion injuries that might result from such repetitive activities, and reduce the time it takes to complete the required tasks.
The present invention comprises an inoculation tool having a terminating end, a stalk region, and a tip. The tool can have a length ranging from 0.59 inches to 1.6 inches and a width ranging from 0.010 to 0.315 inches.
In a preferred embodiment, the length ranges from 1.260 inches to 1.300 inches from the terminating end to the tip, and a distance that is at least 0.250 inches from the tip and at most 0.375 inches from the tip has a first width that ranges from 0.093 inches to 0.107 inches. The first width narrows toward the tip to a second width that ranges from 0.011 to 0.068 inches. The tip can comprise a flat end or a pointed end. In another preferred embodiment, the tool has a length of 1.280 inches from the terminating end to the tip, and at a distance that is 0.312 inches from the tip, the width is 0.10 inches. The width narrows toward the tip to a second width of 0.063 inches. The tip can be formed to have a flat end.
In another preferred embodiment, the tool has a length of 1.280 inches from the terminating end to the tip, and at a distance that is 0.312 inches from the tip, the width is 0.10 inches. The width narrows toward the tip to a second width of 0.016 inches. The tip can be formed to have a pointed end.
The inoculation tool can be made of a biodegradable material. The tool can have one or more ridges to improve handling of the tool. Also to improve handling, besides having a round and/or conical shape, the tool can have a star-shaped cross-section and a flat-sided geometric cross-section. Both ends of the tool can have a flat, round, narrowed, or angled shape. The tool can be pre-sterilized.
In addition, an improved inoculation method using the inoculation tool is disclosed.
The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended to provide example embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to represent the only forms in which the invention may be constructed or utilized. The description sets forth the functions and the sequences of steps for constructing and operating the invention. However, it is to be understood that the same or equivalent functions and sequences may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Some embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to
Described herein are disposable inoculation tools 10 that have been custom designed to fit into 0.6, 1.5, and/or 2.0 ml micro tubes with the lid closed. The inoculation tool may be comprised of any appropriate material including wood, bamboo, or any type of plastic including but not limited to: PET, PP, PC, PMMA, PETG, PVC, PE, PS, PA, ABS, EVA, EPS, HIPS, SAN, RPET, CPET, APET, TPU, TPR, Synthetic Butyl Rubber, Polyesters, homopolymers and Copolymers. The plastic used may also contain an additive to give the tool a desired quality. Examples of such additives are, but are not limited to: additives known in the art that give a hydrophobic quality to the tool and additives known in the art that alter the chemical bonds in the plastic to accelerate decomposition of the plastic in the waste stream, giving the inoculation tool a more environmentally ecological quality. The inoculation tool 10 can be sold in sterile packs or non-sterile packs. The inoculation tool 10 can be pointed, cut at a 90° angle, or at any other angle, at one end or at both ends 12, 16. The inoculation tools 10 shown in
A preferred embodiment of the inoculation tool is shown in
Embodiments having a tip 16 with a pointed end can allow for a very detailed extraction of material. Embodiments having a tip 16 with a flat-surfaced end, and thus a relatively larger second width W2 at the tip 16 than a pointed end embodiment, can extract a larger amount of material. The terminating end 12 having a first width W1 can be used to extract even more material.
A system comprising the inoculation tool 10 and a test tube 20 is shown in
The present invention eliminates the inconvenient step of breaking the inoculation tool because the tool fits in its entirety into a 0.6, 1.5 or 2.0 ml test tube. The invention also does not require that the inoculation procedure to be performed in a larger test tube that is later transferred to a micro tube, which reduces the number of consumables required to complete the process and reduces risks of contamination. When using the larger test tube method the user risks an incomplete transfer of the media and the inoculation may not take place. This method using the improved inoculation tool 10 is an improvement for the user as it reduces the overall number of steps required to complete the tasks, takes less time, is more likely to achieve a successful inoculation, and can reduce repetitive motion injuries that might result from such repetitive activities.
The described inoculation tool 10 is applicable in any situation where a user wishes to manipulate a portion of microbial colonies, biological and non-biological samples, plaque(s), liquids/solids, and other material samples. It is particularly useful to facilitate the movement of a small sample or inoculate from the sample to a micro tube or other receiving vessel.
While the present invention has been described with regards to particular embodiments, it is recognized that additional variations of the present invention may be devised without departing from the inventive concept. A person skilled in the art would appreciate that exemplary embodiments described hereinabove are merely illustrative of the general principles of the present invention. Other components, configurations, modifications or variations may be employed that are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are illustrative and not meant to be a limitation thereof.
