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US 5,424,413 AGranted
Branched nucleic acid probes
AssigneeGen-Probe Incorporated
InventorsJames J. Hogan, Lyle J. Arnold, Jr., Norman C. Nelson, Robert Bezverkov
Life of this patent
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AssigneeGen-Probe Incorporated
InventorsJames J. Hogan, Lyle J. Arnold, Jr., Norman C. Nelson, Robert Bezverkov
Estimating the term…
Nucleic acid hybridization probes having at least one nucleic acid strand which has at least two separate target specific regions that hybridize to a target nucleic acid sequence, and at least two distinct arm regions that do not hybridize with the target nucleic acid but possess complementary regions that are capable of hybridizing with one another. These regions are designed such that, under appropriate hybridization conditions, the complementary arm regions will not hybridize to one another in the absence of the target nucleic acid; but, in the presence of target nucleic acid the target-specific regions of the probe will anneal to the target nucleic acid, and the complementary arm regions will anneal to one another, thereby forming a branched nucleic acid structure.
A purified nucleic acid probe comprising one or more nucleic acid molecules together comprising at least two separate target regions which hybridize with a target nucleic acid under a predetermined environmental condition comprising a hybridization temperature, and at least two arm regions, wherein said arm regions, under said predetermined environmental condition, do not hybridize with said target nucleic acid, or with each other in the absence of said target nucleic acid, but in the presence of said target nucleic acid do hybridize with each other to form a detectable duplex which does not contain labels interacting to produce a detectable signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.