Patent ID: 9657336
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: C12Q

Claim:
1. A method of quantifying a target material in solution comprising: functionalizing a plurality of nanoparticles to adapt the nanoparticles to hybridize with a species-specific target material; measuring the size of the functionalized nanoparticles to predetermine a distribution of non-hybridized nanoparticles; introducing the functionalized nanoparticles in solution, the solution containing a plurality of materials including at least one of the species-specific target material or a non-target material; hybridizing the functionalized nanoparticles with the species-specific target material if present in the solution; measuring the size of the functionalized nanoparticles in the solution after a sufficient time for hybridization utilizing light transmission spectroscopy; and at least one of detecting or quantifying the presence or non-presence of the species specific target material by comparing the measured size of the functionalized nanoparticles after hybridization to the distribution of non-hybridized nanoparticles to determine whether at least a subset of the functionalized nanoparticles have hybridized with the species specific target material.