Process for determining metabolism and growth of cells under various conditions

Claim 1

A process for determining the effects of at least one composition of matter upon a microbiologically active material selected from the group consisting of a macromolecule, a viroid, a virus, a bacterium, a yeast, a mold, a parasite, a plant cell and a mammalian cell in a sample comprising the steps of: forming a plurality of subsamples from the sample of microbiologically active material comprising at least one test subsample and at least one control subsample, each of said subsamples being made by: (i) forming a suspension of the microbiologically active material in a liquid diluent capable of forming a gel, each said suspension comprising a plurality of liquid micro-droplets, each of said liquid micro-droplets containing not substantially more than one microbiologically active entity: (ii) converting said liquid micro-droplets of each said suspension into gel micro-droplets having a diameter between about 0.2 and 1000 microns; combining said test subsamples with a composition of interest while maintaining said control subsamples as uncombined suspensions of micro-droplets; measuring a characteristic product of microbiological activity for each of said combined subsamples and each of said uncombined subsamples; and comparing said measured characteristic product from said combined subsamples to said measured characteristic product from said uncombined subsamples to determine the effect of the composition of interest.