Patent ID: 7833711

Claim:
A method for detecting fluorescence in a liquid sample, comprising: introducing a liquid sample comprising a target nucleic acid sequence into a chamber loaded with detection reagents prior to introducing the liquid sample, the detection reagents comprising a first unlabeled oligonucleotide; a second unlabeled oligonucleotide; and a fluorescently-labeled oligonucleotide; causing a first reaction in the chamber, between the target nucleic acid sequence and both the first unlabeled oligonucleotide and the second unlabeled oligonucleotide, under conditions effective to selectively bind each of the first unlabeled oligonucleotide and the second unlabeled oligonucleotide to the target nucleic acid sequence and to form a reaction product; causing a second reaction in the chamber, to occur at the same time the first reaction is occurring, wherein the second reaction comprises a reaction between the fluorescently-labeled oligonucleotide and the reaction product and wherein a second reaction product is formed that emits a detectable fluorescent signal upon excitation thereof; exciting the second reaction product in the chamber to cause the second reaction product to emit a detectable fluorescent signal from the chamber; and detecting the detectable fluorescent signal emitted from the chamber.