Patent ID: 8758995

Claim:
A method for detecting whether a target nucleic acid having a known sequence is present in a sample comprising nucleic acid fragments, comprising: (a) under hybridization conditions, contacting the nucleic acid fragments of the sample with an array of nucleic acid probes, wherein each probe in the array of nucleic acid probes comprises a double-stranded region, a single-stranded region and a variable sequence within the single-stranded region, and wherein the single-stranded region of the probes comprises a sequence complementary to a sequence of the target nucleic acid; (b) releasing the nucleic acid fragments hybridized to the probes, thereby producing released fragments; (c) determining molecular weights of the released fragments by mass spectrometry; (d) determining whether the sequence of the target nucleic acid is present in the released fragments from the molecular weights of the released fragments; and (e) detecting whether the target nucleic acid is present in the sample based on whether the target nucleic acid sequence is present in the released fragments.