Cell surface receptors for the detection and identification of compounds

A method for determining relatedness of a sample to a standard known to be authentic or known to have at least one selected characteristic of authentic material, the method comprising:

• generating a plurality of signals for a ligand-containing standard by contacting an array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors with a ligand-containing standard, each of said receptors having a different selectivity or specificity for a ligand in the ligand-containing standard, the plurality of signals comprising a standard-fingerprint for the ligand-containing standard,
• generating a plurality of signals for a ligand-containing sample by contacting an array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors with a ligand-containing sample, each of said receptors having a different selectivity or specificity for a ligand in the ligand-containing sample, the plurality of signals comprising a sample-fingerprint for the ligand-containing sample, wherein the array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors contacted by the ligand-containing sample is identical to the array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors contacted by the ligand-containing standard, and
• comparing the sample-fingerprint with the standard-fingerprint to determine whether the ligand-containing sample is authentic.

A computer-implemented method for determining the identity of a product, comprising:

• receiving standard-fingerprint data produced by generating a plurality of signals for a ligand-containing standard by contacting an array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors with a ligand-containing standard, each of said receptors having a different selectivity or specificity for a ligand in the ligand-containing standard, the plurality of signals comprising a standard-fingerprint for the ligand-containing standard:
• receiving sample-fingerprint data produced by generating a plurality of signals for a ligand-containing sample by contacting an array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors with a ligand-containing sample, each of said receptors having a different selectivity or specificity for a ligand in the ligand-containing sample, the plurality of signals comprising a sample-fingerprint for the ligand-containing sample, wherein the sample-fingerprint data is generated using the same array of recombinant cells expressing an array of exogenous mutated cell surface receptors contacted by the ligand-containing standard to generate the standard-fingerprint data;
• comparing sample-fingerprint data from the ligand-containing sample to standard-fingerprint data from the ligand-containing standard, and wherein identity requires the sample-fingerprint data from the ligand-containing sample to be within a pre-selected confidence limit defining a range of values calculated from the standard-fingerprint data.