Patent ID: 7138232

Claim:
A process for detecting complementary nucleic acid fragments which comprises the steps of: preparing a composite material sheet, wherein said composite material sheet comprises partitions two-dimensionally extending on a sheet plane to form plural fine sections on the sheet plane, and a porous material portion placed in each fine section, wherein a group of probe molecules are attached to each porous material portion; bringing radioactively labeled sample substances in a liquid phase, into contact with the prepared composite material sheet, whereby target substances among the sample substances are fixed to the probe molecules by a specific biochemical reaction; removing unfixed sample substances from the composite material sheet; keeping the composite material sheet having sample substances fixed by a specific biochemical reaction in contact with a stimulable phosphor sheet, wherein the stimulable phosphor sheet has a phosphor layer which has a thickness of 5 to 50 μm and which contains a stimulable phosphor in an amount of 10 to 140 g/m 2 , whereby the stimulable phosphor layer absorbs and stores radiation energy of the radioactive label coming from the fixed target substances; irradiating the stimulable phosphor sheet with a stimulating light, whereby the phosphor layer in which the radiation energy is stored releases stimulated emissions; detecting the stimulated emissions photoelectrically to obtain a series of electric signals; and processing the electric signals to detect dots in which the target substances are present.