US 7,097,973 B1Granted

Method for monitoring molecular species within a medium

AssigneeAlpha M.O.S.

InventorFrederic Zenhausern

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Abstract

Apparatus and methods for monitoring, analyzing, and/or discriminating molecular species, preferably a biomolecule, within a medium using a multisensor array (MSA) and multivariate processing. Biological compounds such as nucleotides and polynucleotides can be detected and analyzed. A reaction process such as an accumulation cycle of nucleic acids can be monitored, analyzed, and controlled using a multisensor array (MSA) and multivariate processing. Monitoring a biomolecule includes interrogating the medium, and preferably its gas phase, by coupling a sensor responsive to any changes of the medium and or biomolecule and its secondary products when, for example, an amplification reaction is proceeded. It is also a scope of the present invention to use direct detection and monitoring of biomolecular reactions in real-time without radioactive or fluorescent labeling. A preferred application is real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A method for directly in-situ monitoring volatile compounds in a gas or vapor phase medium from a nucleic acid polymerase amplification reaction, in real-time during the reaction, which comprisies one or more nucleic acids, comprising the steps of:

screening the medium with a multisensor array in the same container as said reaction so that more than one physico-chemical change of a gas or vapor phase of a nucleic acid is detected in real-time during the reaction by the multisensor to provide detected information to produce at least one signal output;
transferring the signal output to a signal processing means responsive to differences in electromagnetic properties of the signal for generating a final output;
receiving the final output into a pattern recognition means sufficient to generate a measurement pattern of the information;
sorting the information in accordance with a set of class boundaries of the physico-chemical changes;
and
monitoring sorted information in real-time during the reaction that is representative of the identity and amount the one or more nucleic acids in the medium.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.