Patent ID: 7833704

Claim:
A competitive binding assay for detecting aneuploidy in a subject by simultaneously analyzing the relative frequency of all chromosomes in a sample from said subject, said method comprising: (i) producing a sample from a subject comprising fluorescently-labeled sample polynucleotides that are representative of the number of each chromosome in said subject; (ii) producing a standard comprising equivalent, non-aneuploid fluorescently-labeled standard polynucleotides for each chromosome, wherein the sample polynucleotides and the standard polynucleotides are labeled with fluorophores that have distinct emission spectra and the sample polynucleotides and standard polynucleotides are thereby distinguishable from one another; (iii) mixing said sample and standard under hybridization conditions with a limiting amount of binding agents for each chromosome, wherein the binding agents comprise nucleic acids that are complementary to the sample polynucleotides and standard polynucleotides for each chromosome and the nucleic acids are immobilized onto fluorescently-labeled microparticles, wherein each binding agent for each chromosome comprises a different fluorescently-labeled microparticle that has a distinct size and fluorescent label intensity, and wherein the fluorescent label on said microparticles has a distinct emission spectrum from that of the sample and standard; and (iv) detecting hybridization of the sample polynucleotides and the standard polynucleotides to the binding agents by detecting the fluorescent signals emitted by the sample polynucleotides bound to the binding agents and the standard polynucleotides bound to the binding agents and by detecting and distinguishing between the microparticles of the binding agents for each chromosome based on the size and fluorescent intensity of the microparticles, wherein the presence of aneuploidy in a subject is detected by detecting a difference in the fluorescent signal emitted by the sample polynucleotides bound to the binding agent as compared to that of the standard polynucleotides bound to the binding agent, and wherein the identity of the binding agent bound to the sample and standard polynucleotides is determined based on the size and fluorescent intensity of the microparticle, thereby simultaneously analyzing the relative frequency of all chromosomes in a sample from said subject.