| 摘要 |
Systems, tools and methods of assaying biological material are used to perform complex sandwich hybridization assays. The tools used comprise biological solution probes that are customized for each assay. The solution probe comprises a first region for hybridizing to a probe, in a generic set of capture probes on a universal assay apparatus, and a second region for hybridizing to a target in a sample. The solution probe assembles the target to the assay apparatus by hybridizing the second region to the target and the first region to the capture probe. In array assays, one or more biological samples, having one or more targets per sample, can be multiplexed on the same universal array comprising the generic set of capture probes in an array pattern of features on the substrate. The customized solution probe addresses and assembles a predetermined target-sample combination onto the array at a corresponding capture probe address location. The systems, tools and methods have specificity and sensitivity by systematically providing a reduced likelihood of cross-hybridizations and intramolecular structures in the probes. Specificity and sensitivity of the assay are provided by the incorporation of a chemically modified monomer in the capture probe and a similarly modified monomer complement in the first region of the solution probe. The modified monomers preferentially hybridize with each other. When the probe and respective probe region are oligonucleotides, the complementary modified nucleotides have a reversed polarity relative to the polarity of the respective probe and probe region. The complementary reversed polarity nucleotides form a thermodynamically more stable hybridization to each other than a hybridization between the reversed polarity nucleotide and a complementary nucleotide whose polarity is not similarly reversed.
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