An Experimental Framework for Quantifying Bacterial Tolerance

Antibiotic tolerance and persistence are often associated with treatment failure and relapse, yet are poorly characterized. In distinction from resistance, which is measured using the minimum inhibitory concentration metric, tolerance and persistence values are not currently evaluated in the clinical setting, and so are overlooked when a course of treatment is prescribed. In this article, we introduce a metric and an automated experimental framework for measuring tolerance and persistence. The tolerance metric is the minimum duration for killing 99% of the population, MDK99, which can be evaluated by a statistical analysis of measurements performed manually or using a robotic system.

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