| 摘要 |
This invention relates to a device, in one example embodiment, for the determination of the sequence of nucleic acids and other polymeric or chain type molecules. The device analyzes a sample prepared by incorporating fluorescent dyes at the end of copies of varying lengths of the sample to be sequenced. The sample is then vaporized, charged and accelerated in an evacuated chamber. The individual molecules of the sample are accelerated to different velocities because of their different masses, which cause, in one embodiment, the molecules to be sorted by length as they travel along the evacuated chamber. Once sorted, the stream of molecules is illuminated causing the fluorescent dyes to emit light that is picked up by a detector. The output of the detector is then processed by a computer to yield of the sequence of the sample under analysis. Such an embodiment improves over the art by using photo-detection of the individual molecules instead of measuring the time of flight to a detector that measures collisions. Unlike mass spectrometry, the method of such an embodiment does not require the extreme sensitivity required to differentiate between very small mass differences in large molecules. Such an embodiment is therefore more robust than the art and well suited for high throughput sequencing of for example, various large nucleic acid molecules.
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