Instrument for monitoring polymerase chain reaction of DNA
First Claim
1. An instrument for use with a plurality of DNA samples, the instrument comprising:
- a reaction apparatus configured to hold a plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions comprising respective ingredients including at least one fluorescent chemical and a DNA sample;
a light source configured to produce a plurality of excitation beams, each excitation beam configured to be simultaneously directed to a single reaction region of the plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions;
a plurality of lenses;
wherein the lenses are configured to simultaneously pass at least two of the excitation beams to at least two respective reaction regions of the plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions, so as to emit respective emission beams; and
wherein the lenses are configured to pass the respective emission beams.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An optical instrument monitors PCR replication of DNA in a reaction apparatus having a temperature cycled block with vials of reaction ingredients including dye that fluoresces in presence of double-stranded DNA. A beam splitter passes an excitation beam to the vials to fluoresce the dye. An emission beam from the dye is passed by the beam splitter to a CCD detector from which a processor computes DNA concentration. A reference strip with a plurality of reference emitters emit reference beams of different intensity, from which the processor selects an optimum emitter for compensating for drift. Exposure time is automatically adjusted for keeping within optimum dynamic ranges of the CCD and processor. A module of the beam splitter and associated optical filters is associated with selected dye, and is replaceable for different dyes.
153 Citations
13 Claims
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1. An instrument for use with a plurality of DNA samples, the instrument comprising:
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a reaction apparatus configured to hold a plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions comprising respective ingredients including at least one fluorescent chemical and a DNA sample; a light source configured to produce a plurality of excitation beams, each excitation beam configured to be simultaneously directed to a single reaction region of the plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions; a plurality of lenses; wherein the lenses are configured to simultaneously pass at least two of the excitation beams to at least two respective reaction regions of the plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions, so as to emit respective emission beams; and wherein the lenses are configured to pass the respective emission beams. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system, comprising:
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a reaction apparatus configured to hold a plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions each including a fluorescent chemical and a DNA sample; a light source configured to simultaneously provide at least two individual excitation beams corresponding to at least two reactions regions of the plurality of spaced-apart reaction regions; a plurality of lenses configured to simultaneously direct the at least two individual excitation beams toward corresponding ones of the at least two reaction regions to produce corresponding emission beams each having an intensity representative of a target DNA strand concentration within the at least two reaction regions; wherein the plurality of lenses is disposed so as (a) to simultaneously pass the at least two individual excitation beams from the light source to the plurality of reaction regions and (b) to pass the emission beams from the plurality of reaction regions. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification