Patent ID: 8497073
Filing Date: 2013-07-30
Classification: B82Y,C12Q,G01N,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method for screening one or more candidate binding partners for modulating the conformation of a test molecule, the method comprising: (a) illuminating a sample with one or more light beams at one or more fundamental frequencies, said sample comprising said test molecule exposed to said one or more candidate binding partners, wherein a nonlinear-active label is attached to a part of said test molecule that undergoes a conformational change upon interaction with said one or more binding partners, wherein there is no more than one test molecule directly bound to said nonlinear-active label, and wherein said test molecule is nonlinear-active in the absence of an exogenous nonlinear-active label bound to the test molecules; (b) measuring one or more physical properties of a second-harmonic or sum-frequency light beam emanating from said sample; and (c) comparing a value of said one or more physical properties measured in step (b) to a value for said one or more physical properties measured in the absence of exposure of said test molecule to said one or more candidate binding partners, wherein a change in the value of said one or more physical properties measured in step (b) relative to the value for said one or more physical properties measured in the absence of exposure of said test molecule to said one or more candidate binding partners indicates that said one or more candidate binding partners modulate the conformation of said test molecule.