PULSED-MULTILINE EXCITATION FOR COLOR-BLIND FLUORESCENCE DETECTION

摘要

The present invention provides a technology called Pulse-Multiline Excitatio n or PME. This technology provides a novel approach to fluorescence detection with application for high throughput identification of informative SNPs, whi ch could lead to more accurate diagnosis of inherited disease, better prognosis of risk susceptibilities, or identification of sporadic mutations. The PME technology has two main advantages that significantly increase fluorescence sensitivity : (1) optimal excitation of all fluorophores in the genomic assa y and (2) "color-blind" detection, which collects considerably more light than standard wavelength resolved detection. This technology differs significantl y from the current state-of-the-art DNA sequencing instrumentation, which features single source excitation and color dipersion for DNA sequence identification. Successful implementation of the PME technology will have broad application for routine usage in clinical diagnostics, forensics, and general sequencing methodologies and will have the capability, flexibility, and portability of targeted sequence variation assays for a large majority o f the population.