System with extended range of molecular sensing through integrated multi-modal data acquisition

A multi-modal data acquisition system for detecting target material in a sample, the data acquisition system comprising:

• a biological compact disc having antibodies for reacting with the target material in the sample;
• a radiation source for generating an incoming beam to illuminate the biological compact disc, the incoming beam impinging on the biological compact disc at an oblique incidence angle and producing a reflected beam in the specular direction, the reflected beam being produced by the incoming beam reflecting off the biological compact disc;
• an interferometric detector for detecting an interferometric signal from the illuminated biological compact disc, the reflected beam being directed to the interferometric detector,
• a fluorescence detector for detecting a fluorescence signal from the illuminated biological compact disc;
• the fluorescence detector being positioned to substantially minimize the incidence of the reflected beam on the fluorescence detector;
• and
• an oscilloscope connected to the interferometric detector for receiving the interferometric signal and producing an interferometric digital data stream therefrom, and connected to the fluorescence detector for receiving the fluorescence signal and producing a fluorescence digital data stream therefrom;
• and
• a computer connected to the oscilloscope for receiving the interferometric digital data stream and the fluorescence digital data stream, and determining the presence or absence of the target material on the biological compact disc using the interferometric digital data stream and the fluorescence digital data stream.

A method of using a multi-modal data acquisition system for detecting target material on a biological compact disc, the method comprising:

• generating an incoming beam to illuminate the biological compact disc using a radiation source;
• directing the incoming beam to impinge on the biological compact disc to produce a reflected beam;
• collecting the reflected beam with an interferometric detector to produce an interferometric signal,
• collecting a fluorescence signal with a fluorescence detector,
• digitizing the interferometric signal to produce an interferometric digital data stream;
• digitizing the fluorescence signal to produce a fluorescence digital data stream;
• and
• correlating the interferometric digital data stream and the fluorescence digital data stream to determine the presence or absence of the target material on the biological compact disc.