Patent ID: 8043810
Filing Date: 2011-10-25
Classification: C12Q,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method to determine the presence or absence of an analyte in a sample which method comprises contacting said sample with a nanometer scale switching device (NSD) comprised of a nucleic acid that is specific for, and activated by, the presence of the analyte such that the NSD will remain in its off state in the absence of the analyte and switch to its on state in the presence of the analyte, components comprised of nucleic acids that are components of an autocatalytic chain reaction (ACR) process which process is initiated by activation of the NSD or directly by the analyte, and operates with superlinear kinetics to produce a product wherein each subsequent ACR reaction cycle produces more than one further product from each product previously formed with a rate of product growth increasing over time, and an indicator (IDR) responsive to said product; and detecting the presence or absence of any response of the IDR to said product as indicative of the presence or absence of the analyte, wherein said ACR comprises an autocatalytic nucleic acid cleavage reaction, wherein said autocatalytic nucleic acid reaction opens a covalently circularized ribozyme or deoxyribozyme achieving a linearized form.