Catalytically generated mass labels
AssigneeXzillion GmbH & Co.
InventorsGunter Schmidt, Andrew Hugin Thompson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention involves a method for assaying a substance. The method of the present invention comprises contacting the substance with an assay agent comprising a catalytic agent to associate the substance with the catalytic agent, contacting the resulting associated substance with a label precursor capable of reacting catalytically with the catalytic agent to release the label, and detecting a mass label. The present invention also involves a kit for assaying a substance. The kit of the present invention comprises an assay agent comprising a catalytic agent, and a label precursor capable of reacting catalytically with the catalytic agent to release a mass label.
Claims13
A method for assaying for a substance, which method comprises the following steps:
- (i) contacting the substance with an assay agent comprising a probe and a catalytic agent, wherein said probe binds to the substance;
- (ii) separating said probe which has bound to the substance from said probe which has not bound to the substance;
- (iii) contacting said substance bound to said probe with a label precursor, wherein said label precursor reacts catalytically with said catalytic agent to release a mass label;
- (iv) detecting the mass label by mass spectrometry, thereby assaying for the substance.
A method for assaying for the presence of a plurality of substances in a mixture, which method comprises the following steps:
- (i) contacting the mixture with an assay agent comprising an array of probes, wherein each probe comprises a catalytic agent specific to that probe, to bind each substance in the mixture with a probe and thus a catalytic agent specific to that substance;
- (ii) separating said probes which have bound to a substance from said probes which have not bound to a substance;
- (iii) contacting the substances which have bound to a probe with an array of label precursors, wherein each label precursor reacts catalytically with a catalytic agent specific to that precursor to release a mass label specific to its precursor;
- (iv) detecting the mass label by mass spectrometry, thereby assaying for the presence of the substances.
A method for detecting one or more mRNA moieties comprising the following steps:
- (i) contacting the mRNA(s) with an assay agent comprising a probe and a catalytic agent, wherein said probe binds to the mRNA(s);
- (ii) separating said probe which has bound to the mRNA(s) from said probe which has not bound to the mRNA(s);
- (iii) contacting said mRNA(s) bound to said probe with a label precursor, wherein said label precursor reacts catalytically with said catalytic agent to release a mass label;
- (iv) detecting the mass label by mass spectrometry, thereby assaying for the mRNA(s).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.