Back to results
US 10,329,599 B2Granted
Molecular detection system
AssigneeThe University of Birmingham
InventorsTimothy Dafforn, Matthew Hicks
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A molecular sensor that utilizes dichroism can be used to identify the presence of a target nucleic acid molecule in a sample, for example during or after amplification reactions such as PCR/thermocyling reactions and isothermal reactions. A sensor element for use in the molecular sensor may comprise an alignable scaffold/receptor complex, the receptor of said complex comprising a nucleic acid sequence which is complementary to at least a portion of a target nucleic acid molecule.
Claims10
A method of detecting a target nucleic acid molecule in a sample, said method comprising;
- providing an alignable scaffold/receptor complex, the receptor of said complex comprising a nucleic acid sequence which is complementary to at least a portion of the target nucleic acid molecule,
- exposing the scaffold/receptor complex to the sample whereby to bind the receptor to the target nucleic acid molecule if present,
- inducing alignment of the scaffold/receptor/target complex, and
- using linear dichroism (LD) to detect a change in the alignment of the scaffold/receptor complex effected by binding of the target nucleic acid molecule, if present, to the receptor,
- wherein at least a first and a second alignable scaffold/receptor complex are provided and
- wherein each of the first and second scaffold/receptor complex binds to the same target nucleic acid, the receptor of the first complex comprising a nucleic acid sequence which is complementary to a first portion of the target nucleic acid, and the receptor of the second complex comprising a nucleic acid sequence which is complementary to a second portion of the target nucleic acid.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.