NEW RECORDING MEDIA FOR AN AUTOMATED GENOME MAPPING SYSTEM

PRESENT TECHNIQUES FOR OBTAINING INFORMATION FROM SEQUENCED ELECTROPHORESIS GELS RELY HEAVILY ON X-RAY FILM AS THE RECORDING MEDIUM. SUCH FILM SUFFERS FROM LIMITED DYNAMIC RANGE, NONLINEAR RESPONSIVITY, AND TIME-CONSUMING DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES. THIS PROJECT INVOLVES NEW RECORDINGMEDIA FOR AN AUTOMATED GENOME MAPPING SYSTEM. THE MEDIA AREDIFFERENT FORMULATIONS OF PROPRIETARY ELECTRON TRAPPING MATERIALS THAT HAVE THE CAPABILITY OF RECORDING BETA PARTICLE EVENTS AND EVENTS PRODUCED BY RELATIVELY SHORT-WAVEVISIBLE LIGHT. CONSEQUENTLY, THE PRESENCE OF RADIOACTIVELY TAGGED AND DYE-TAGGED DNA FRAGMENTS CAN BE RECORDED AND EVENT INFORMATION INTEGRATED. IN PHASE I DETECTOR PLANES WILL BE FABRICATED EMPLOYING ELECTRON TRAPPING PHOSPHORS. THE DETECTOR PLANES WILL THEN BE EVALUATED FOR DYNAMIC RANGE, LINEARITY OF RESPONSE TO EITHER BET RADIATION OR VISIBLE LIGHT, RESOLUTION CAPABILITY, AND RESPONSE TIME. PATTERNS OF BETA RADIATION AND LIGHT WILL BE RECORDED IN THEDETECTOR PLANES AND THEN READ OUT WITH AN X-Y SCANNING SYSTEM. THE SCANNING APPARATUS WILL BE EVALUATED TO DETERMINE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR SCANNING LARGE AREAS.