Patent ID: 7169554

Claim:
A method for detecting and/or quantifying a target nucleic acid sequence in a sample comprising: contacting said sample with an oligonucleotide sequence containing at least a probe sequence capable of binding to said target nucleic acid sequence, wherein said oligonucleotide sequence is labelled with each of at least one chemiluminescent molecule and at least one quencher molecule capable of attenuating chemiluminescence from said chemiluminescent molecule, the chemiluminescent and quencher molecules being arranged so that the interaction thereof changes according to whether the probe sequence is bound to said target nucleic acid sequence, such that in one of the bound and unbound states said chemiluminescence is substantially attenuated, and in the other thereof there is reduced or no attenuation of the chemiluminescence; chemically activating the chemiluminescent molecule; and detecting the chemiluminescence emission from said chemiluminescent molecule and comparing said chemiluminescence emission with that corresponding to the absence of said target nucleic acid sequence thereby detecting and/or quantifying said target nucleic acid sequence.