Optimizing Electrophoresis Gels for Rimp Analysis

This project uses sequencing by hybridization to develop a new method to detect mutations,allowing disease diagnoses in selected genes from a large number of individuals, in a faster, moreeconomical and more comprehensive way than can currently be accomplished. Stable isotopes is utilizedas DNA labels to demonstrate the basic advantages of such labels and to show the multiplexingfeasibility. We have demonstrated that stable isotopes function as both DNA and oligonucleotide labelsand that resonance ionization spectroscopy can offer a very fast method for the detection ofsurface-bound DNA with a high degree of sensitivity, selectivity, spatial resolution, and analysis speed.In Phase I, we evaluate two potentially viable detection techniques for rapid genome diagnosis usinggenosensor matrices: sputter-initiated resonance ionization spectroscopy (SIRIS) and laser atomizationRIS (LARIS). Measurements are made on quartz surfaces, onto which oligonucleotide sequences havebeen attached, to identify positively hybridized and unhybridized sites and to determine the sensitivity,efficiency, background, spatial resolution, and speed - and the interrelationships and trade-offs amongthem.