Combined molecular binding detection through force microscopy and mass spectrometry
First Claim
1. A method for detecting a target material comprising:
- depositing a deposition material on a surface;
exposing the deposition material to a target sample wherein the target sample contains one or more target materials that are to be characterized, the target material interacting with the deposition material on the surface to form a reaction product on the surface;
scanning the surface with a scanning probe microscope to locate the position of the reaction product on the surface;
desorbing the reaction product from the surface; and
detecting the desorbed reaction product.
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Abstract
The present invention includes a method for analyzing and characterizing molecular interaction events utilizing a combined scanning probe microscope (SPM) and a mass spectrometer (MS). An array of one or more deposition materials may be randomly deposited on a suitable surface, scanned with the SPM (or AFM) to take an initial reading of the topography of the deposition materials on the surface, and then exposed to a target sample containing a target material which may bind or interact to one or more of the deposition materials on the surface. The surface is then scanned again with the SPM to determine the molecular interaction sites and then these sites are analyzed using the MS to determine both the unknown and the deposition material.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for detecting a target material comprising:
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depositing a deposition material on a surface;
exposing the deposition material to a target sample wherein the target sample contains one or more target materials that are to be characterized, the target material interacting with the deposition material on the surface to form a reaction product on the surface;
scanning the surface with a scanning probe microscope to locate the position of the reaction product on the surface;
desorbing the reaction product from the surface; and
detecting the desorbed reaction product. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An apparatus for the detection and characterization of molecular interaction events comprising:
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a scanning tunneling microscope; and
a mass spectrometer. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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28. A method for determining protein interactions
distributing randomly on a surface a first set of proteins; -
imaging the randomly distributed proteins on the surface;
exposing the first set of proteins on the surface to a second set of proteins;
imaging the protein-protein interactions;
noting the location of the protein-protein interactions;
characterizing the protein-protein interactions using mass spectrometry. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30)
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Specification