US 11,702,707 B2
Systems and methods for assessing contamination of drinking water
Sergei S. Makarov, Morrisville, NC (US); and Alexander Vladimirovich Medvedev, Durham, NC (US)
Assigned to ATTAGENE, INC., Morrisville, NC (US)
Appl. No. 14/343,846
Filed by Sergei S. Makarov, Morrisville, NC (US); and Alexander Vladimirovich Medvedev, Durham, NC (US)
PCT Filed Sep. 8, 2012, PCT No. PCT/US2012/054336
§ 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jun. 23, 2014,
PCT Pub. No. WO2013/052237, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 11, 2013.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/532,122, filed on Sep. 8, 2011.
Prior Publication US 2014/0311907 A1, Oct. 23, 2014
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. C12Q 1/6897 (2018.01); G01N 21/64 (2006.01)
CPC C12Q 1/6897 (2013.01) [G01N 21/6486 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
 
1. A method of identifying water from a remote water source as safe to drink or not, said method comprising:
(a) obtaining a water sample from the remote water source;
(b) contacting the water sample with a test cell system comprising a cell transfected with a library of at least 20 reporter transcription units, in which each reporter transcription unit includes a unique transcription factor-inducible promoter and produces a reporter sequence in an amount commensurate with transcription factor activity of a different stress-response pathway of the cell;
(c) conducting an assay of the test cell system to quantify a profile of activity of transcription factors in said different stress-response pathways in the cell of the test cell system;
(d) calculating, in a computer-implemented processing operation conducted at a central facility on a networked computer system including a data structure storing reference transcription factor signatures as a database library of signatures, the contamination of the water sample from the remote water source from said profile of activity of transcription factors as a cumulative index that summarizes the activities of said transcription factors, and algorithmically characterizing the contamination of the water sample from the remote water source in said computer-implemented processing operation against the reference transcription factor signatures of the database library of signatures stored in the data structure of the networked computer system, to generate a computer-implemented processing output of the contamination, comprising a water quality determination of whether water from the remote water source is safe to drink or not; and
(e) transmitting the computer-implemented processing output of the contamination, comprising the water quality determination of whether water from the remote water source is safe to drink or not, to a network of the networked computer system whereon it is accessible by a network computer user.