Patent ID: 7855080

Claim:
A method to determine the presence or absence of a constituent oligonucleotide in a sample oligonucleotide mixture by correlating one or more measured mass peak values with one or more calculated mass peak values, the method comprising: a) obtaining a calculated mass spectrum wherein the calculated mass spectrum is comprised of assigned mass peak values representing known masses of oligonucleotides in an oligonucleotide mixture containing the constituent oligonucleotide; b) obtaining a measured mass spectrum of the sample oligonucleotide mixture, wherein said measured mass spectrum is comprised of one or more measured mass peak values; c) comparing the measured mass spectrum with the calculated mass spectrum by correlating one or more measured mass peak values with one or more assigned mass peak values in the calculated mass spectrum to determine if the measured mass spectrum contains a corresponding mass peak value for the constituent oligonucleotide, and d) determining the presence of the constituent oligonucleotide in the sample oligonucleotide mixture when the measured mass spectrum contains the corresponding mass peak value for the constituent oligonucleotide.