Patent ID: 8871687

Claim:
A method for determining a contiguous sequence comprising at least four bases of a target nucleic acid comprising: (a) preparing one or more reaction mixtures containing the target nucleic acid and four or more different, overlapping primers, each primer being complementary to a portion of the target nucleic acid such that the primers each have a 3′ end that hybridizes immediately 3′ of a different nucleotide position of the contiguous sequence to be determined, wherein each reaction contains from one to all of said primers in any combination and is under conditions where the primers anneal to the target nucleic acid; (b) extending the one or more primers from (a) with a polymerase in the presence of one or more different dideoxynucleotides, each type of dideoxynucleotide having a different label; (c) immobilizing said one to all of primers to a solid support; and (d) detecting the label of the dideoxynucleotide incorporated into each primer and utilizing this information to determine said contiguous sequence of at least four bases of the target nucleic acid, wherein immobilizing in (c) occurs before preparing in (a).