Method for analyzing an organic sample
First Claim
1. A method analyzing an organic sample, comprising the steps of:
- a) providing an organic sample in a medium which absorbs lights wherein the sample is a nucleic acid that has been fragmented such that each fragment terminates with one of the bases adenosine (A), cytosine (C), quanosine (G), or thymidine (T);
b) vaporizing the sample and the medium into the gaseous state;
c) inoizing the vaporized sample; and
d) detecting the contents of the vaporized, ionized sample.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Described is a method and apparatus for analyzing an organic sample. In the preferred embodiment, this method and apparatus allows the determination of the base sequence of a nucleic acid by determining the molecular weights of the components of a biological sample. The method uses either a pre-existing chromophore or the covalent attachment of an ionizable chromophore to a biological sample followed by the vaporization of these molecules by exposure to an intense pulse of electromagnetic radiation in the presence of a matrix which strongly absorbs the radiation. The gaseous molecules are subsequently extracted into an evacuated ionization chamber and then exposed to electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength which specifically excites the chromophore covalently attached to the biological sample. The molecular weights of these ionized species are then determined by mass spectroscopic analysis. This method of molecular weight determination allows for a DNA sequencing method. Four samples of DNA molecules are prepared such that each is covalently linked to an ionizable chromophore and each is fragmented by a means which results in fragments within each of the four samples that terminate at a different one of the nucleotides A, C, G or T. Each of these four fragmented samples is subsequently introduced into the said apparatus in order to determine their molecular weights hence providing the strand length of the fragments. The data generated may be analyzed by high-speed computer, the four data sets correlated, and the sequence deduced.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method analyzing an organic sample, comprising the steps of:
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a) providing an organic sample in a medium which absorbs lights wherein the sample is a nucleic acid that has been fragmented such that each fragment terminates with one of the bases adenosine (A), cytosine (C), quanosine (G), or thymidine (T); b) vaporizing the sample and the medium into the gaseous state; c) inoizing the vaporized sample; and d) detecting the contents of the vaporized, ionized sample. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for determining the base sequence of a nucleic acid strand wherein four separate nucleic acid samples derived from the strand are fragmented such that each fragment in a particular sample terminates at one of the bases adenosine (A), cytosine (C), guanosine (G), or thymidine (T), comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing an organic sample comprised of the four samples of the nucleic acid in a light absorbing medium which absorbs light; (b) vaporizing the sample and the light absorbing medium into the gaseous state; (c) ionizing the vaporized sample; and (d) detecting the contents of the vaporized, ionized sample. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. An apparatus that does analyze nucleic acid material present in a visible light absorbing medium comprising:
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an optical source for generating electromagnetic radiation in the visible light region capable of vaporizing the nucleic acid sample material in the visible light absorbing medium which absorbs visible light; a source of ionizing radiation capable of ionizing the vaporized sample; and an apparatus, juxtaposed to the vaporized, ionized sample, capable of determining the contents of the vaporized, ionized sample. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification