Patent ID: 7105310

Claim:
A method of detecting and characterizing a target biomolecule in a sample comprising: (a) forming a complex comprising a target biomolecule and a substrate molecule, the substrate molecule including a substrate linked to a sensitizer, the substrate molecule being capable of recognizing the target biomolecule by contacting the target biomolecule with the substrate molecule; (b) irradiating the complex to cause an emission signal from the sensitizer; (c) determining the presence of the target biomolecule in the complex by detecting the signal emitted by the sensitizer; and (d) characterizing the target biomolecule by optically analyzing the same to determine the structural properties thereof, wherein said sensitizer is a photosensitizer, and wherein said sensitizer-linked substrate molecule is selected from the group consisting of compounds shown by structures (III) and (IV) the sensitizer being linked to the substrate molecule by an alkyl chain, (CH 2 ) n , wherein n=1−13