Patent ID: 7588887

Claim:
A method for determining the rate of degradation of a nucleic acid biopolymer, comprising; a) enriching a first sample nucleic acid biopolymer pool with stable isotope-labeled monomer; b) collecting an aliquot of the first sample of nucleic acid biopolymer; c) measuring the relative abundance of monoisotopic and isotopomeric peaks in the first sample; d) collecting a second aliquot of the first sample of nucleic acid biopolymer; e) measuring the relative abundance of monoisotopic and isotopomeric peaks in the second aliquot; f) calculating the difference between the relative abundance of monoisotopic and isotopomeric peaks measured for the second sample and the first sample; g) dividing the calculated difference between the relative abundance of monoisotopic and isotopomeric peaks by the time duration between the first and second aliquot and therefrom determining the rate of nucleic acid biopolymer degradation.