Patent ID: 7877336

Claim:
A computer system for screening nucleotide sequences, wherein the system comprises one or more distinct units, each of the one or more distinct units being embodied on a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium, and wherein the system comprises: a target nucleotide sequence storing unit for storing target nucleotide sequence data, wherein the target nucleotide sequence data is obtained from a target nucleotide sequence, and wherein the target nucleotide sequence storing unit executes on a hardware processor; a complementary sequence data storing unit for generating complementary sequence data of a probe from a probe nucleotide sequence, wherein the probe nucleotide sequence may be bound to the target nucleotide sequence, and storing the complementary sequence data, wherein the complementary sequence data storing unit executes on a hardware processor; an evaluation processing unit for designating one or more partial short chain sequences from said target nucleotide sequence data, as well as evaluating said complementary sequence data on the basis of each of the one or more partial sequences in descending order from a first edit distance value to a second edit distance value, the second edit distance value being lower than the first edit distance value, and determining the binding possibility of said probe nucleotide sequence to said target nucleotide sequence on a basis of the one or more partial sequences, and wherein the evaluation processing unit executes on a hardware processor; a maximum edit distance storing unit for storing a maximum acceptable edit distance between said target nucleotide sequence and said probe nucleotide sequence, wherein the maximum edit distance storing unit executes on a hardware processor; a termination-determining unit for dynamically determining termination of the evaluation, wherein the termination-determining unit executes on a hardware processor and wherein the termination-determining unit compares a value of min_k and the maximum edit distance k, wherein min_k represents a minimum value of edit distance, and wherein the termination-determining unit commands the evaluation processing unit to stop evaluating at a point when the value of min_k becomes greater than k; and a storage unit for storing a result from the evaluating step and the determining step obtained by said evaluation processing unit, wherein the storage unit executes on a hardware processor.