Patent ID: 7709198

Claim:
A method of detecting one or more nucleic acids of interest, the method comprising: a) providing a sample comprising or suspected of comprising the one or more nucleic acids of interest; b) capturing those nucleic acids of interest present in the sample on a solid support; c) providing one or more subsets of m label extenders, wherein m is at least two, wherein each subset of m label extenders is capable of hybridizing to one of the nucleic acids of interest; d) providing a label probe system comprising a label, wherein a component of the label probe system is capable of hybridizing simultaneously to at least two of the m label extenders in a subset, wherein each of said at least two label extenders comprises a polynucleotide sequence L-1 that is complementary to a polynucleotide sequence in the corresponding nucleic acid of interest and comprises a polynucleotide sequence L-2 that is complementary to a polynucleotide sequence in the component of the label probe system, wherein said at least two label extenders all have L-1 5′ of L-2 or all have L-1 3′ of L-2, and wherein the m label extenders in the subset are complementary to nonoverlapping sequences in the corresponding nucleic acid of interest; e) hybridizing any nucleic acid of interest captured on the solid support to its corresponding subset of m label extenders; f) hybridizing the label probe system to the m label extenders at a hybridization temperature, which hybridization temperature is greater than a melting temperature T m of a complex between each individual label extender and the component of the label probe system; and g) detecting the presence or absence of the label on the solid support.