Claims
- 1. An apparatus comprising:
at least one reaction region; an excitation light source capable of providing a plurality of separate excitation beams, each excitation beam including a wavelength range that is not provided by the other excitation beams of the plurality of separate excitation beams, the excitation light source being capable of directing each excitation beam along a beam path toward the at least one reaction region; a control unit capable of individually activating each of the plurality of excitation beams independently from activating the other ones of the plurality of excitation beams; and a detector capable of detecting emission beams emitted from the at least one reaction region.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the excitation light source comprises a plurality of excitation wavelength sources each capable of forming a respective excitation beam having a wavelength range, wherein each excitation beam wavelength range is exclusive of any other excitation beam wavelength range.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the detector is capable of comparing the excitation beam with a detected signal to determine the presence or absence of a component.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit is capable of storing in memory each of the respective excitation beams and respective detection signals resulting from illuminating a sample in the at least one reaction region with the respective excitation beam.
- 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control unit is capable of comparing a detection signal with a preset value and, based on that comparison, determining a presence or an absence of a component in a sample.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the excitation light source comprises at least one of a light emitting diode, an organic light emitting diode, a semiconductor laser, a solid state laser, and a micro-wire laser.
- 7. An instrument comprising:
a sample well; a sample arranged in the sample well, the sample comprising a plurality of components and a plurality of detectable markers, each of the plurality of detectable markers being capable of generating increased emission due to a presence of a target component in the sample, each of the plurality of detectable markers having a respective excitation wavelength range and a respective emission wavelength range; a light source capable of emitting a plurality of excitation wavelength ranges toward the sample to respectively excite each of the detectable markers, each of the plurality of excitation wavelength ranges corresponding to a respective excitation wavelength range of a respective one of the plurality of detectable markers; and a detector capable of detecting an emission wavelength range emitted from each of the plurality of detectable markers.
- 8. The instrument of claim 7, wherein the light source is capable of sequentially emitting a plurality of excitation wavelength ranges toward the sample and the detector is capable of sequentially detecting whether a corresponding emission wavelength range is emitted from the sample.
- 9. The instrument of claim 7, further comprising a lens arranged to receive the plurality of excitation wavelengths emitted from the light source and emission wavelengths emitted from the sample.
- 10. The instrument of claim 9, wherein the lens is a focusing lens.
- 11. The instrument of claim 9, wherein the lens is a Fresnel lens or a prism.
- 12. The instrument of claim 9, wherein the light source comprises, a light emitting diode, a organic light emitting diode, a laser, a solid state laser, a micro-wire laser, or a combination thereof.
- 13. The instrument of claim 7, wherein the light source comprises an array of light generating sources.
- 14. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the array of light generating sources includes an array of light emitting diodes.
- 15. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the array of light generating sources includes an organic light emitting diode layout.
- 16. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the array of light generating sources comprises one or more light emitting diodes.
- 17. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the array of light generating sources includes one or more lasers.
- 18. The instrument of claim 13, wherein the array of light generating sources includes a solid state laser.
- 19. The instrument of claim 7, further comprising a lightpipe arranged between the light source and the sample.
- 20. The instrument of claim 7, further comprising a lightpipe arranged between the detector and the sample.
- 21. The instrument of claim 7, further comprising an excitation wavelength-excluding device arranged between the sample and the detector.
- 22. The instrument of claim 21, wherein the excitation wavelength-excluding device comprises a longpass filter, a multiple notch filter, a bandpass filter, or a combination thereof.
- 23. The instrument of claim 7, further comprising an excitation wavelength-excluding device arranged between the light source and the sample.
- 24. The instrument of claim 23, wherein the excitation wavelength-excluding device comprises a longpass filter, a multiple notch filter, a bandpass filter, or a combination thereof.
- 25. The instrument of claim 7, further comprising a mirror arranged between both the light source and the sample, and the detector and the sample.
- 26. A method comprising:
providing a sample that includes at least two detectable markers, wherein each detectable marker emits a respective detectable emission beam when illuminated by an excitation beam that includes light of a respective wavelength, illuminating the sample with a first excitation beam that includes a first wavelength; detecting emission beams emitted from the sample in response to illuminating the sample with the first excitation beam; then illuminating the sample with a second excitation beam that includes a second wavelength that differs from the first wavelength; and detecting emission beams emitted from the sample in response to illuminating the sample with the second excitation beam.
- 27. The method of claim 26, wherein the at least two detectable markers comprise fluorescent dyes.
- 28. The method of claim 26, wherein the sample includes at least four detectable markers and the method comprises illuminating with at least four different excitation beams.
- 29. A method of differentiating multiple fluorescent signals by excitation wavelength, comprising:
(a) providing a sample in a sample well, the sample comprising a plurality of components; (b) adding a plurality of fluorescent dyes to the sample, each of the plurality of fluorescent dyes being capable of generating increased emission due to a presence of a respective target component in the sample, each of the plurality of fluorescent dyes possessing a respective excitation wavelength range and a respective emission wavelength range; (c) directing an excitation wavelength range from a light source toward the sample to cause a first one of the fluorescent dyes to emit a detectable emission; (d) detecting emission wavelengths emitted from the sample; (e) determining whether a respective target component is present in the sample by analyzing the detected emission wavelengths; and repeating (c) to (e) for each of the plurality of fluorescent dyes in the sample.
- 30. The method of claim 29, further comprising passing at least one of the excitation wavelength and the emission wavelength through a lens.
- 31. The method of claim 29, further comprising passing the emission wavelength through a filter before detecting.
- 32. The method of claim 30, wherein the method comprises includes subjecting the sample to nucleic acid sequence amplification.
- 33. The method of claim 30, wherein the nucleic acid sequence amplification comprises polymerase chain reaction.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from earlier filed U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/381,671, filed May 17, 2002, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/409,152, filed Sep. 9, 2002, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/450,734, filed Feb. 28, 2003, and is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/216,620, filed Aug. 9, 2002, which is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/700,536, filed Nov. 29, 2001, which claims priority to PCT/US99/11088, filed May 17, 1999, which published as publication number WO 99/60381. Cross-reference is made to co-pending application U.S. patent application No. ______ entitled “Optical Instrument Including Excitation Source” to Boege et al. (Attorney Docket No. 5010-042-01), and U.S. patent application No. ______ entitled “Optical Instrument Including Excitation Source” to Boege et al. (Attorney Docket No. 5010-027-01), both filed the same day as the present application. All Patents, Patent Applications, and publications mentioned herein are incorporated herein in their entireties by reference.
Provisional Applications (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60381671 |
May 2002 |
US |
|
60409152 |
Sep 2002 |
US |
|
60450734 |
Feb 2003 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09700536 |
Nov 2001 |
US |
Child |
10216620 |
|
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10216620 |
Aug 2002 |
US |
Child |
10440852 |
May 2003 |
US |