Patent ID: 7228237

Claim:
A method for target sequence quantitation, the method comprising: amplifying a plurality of target sequences by PCR in the presence of a detectable reporter construct; acquiring signal information for each target sequence associated with the detectable reporter construct; evaluating the signal information and identifying an exponential region associated with substantial increases in the signal information for each target sequence amplification wherein each identified exponential region comprises an associated upper and lower bound; identifying a baseline component for the signal information associated with each target sequence amplification and normalizing the signal information for each target sequence amplification using the baseline component; determining an exponential region threshold based upon a comparison of the exponential regions far each target sequence amplification wherein the associated upper and lower bounds the identified exponential regions are evaluated in the comparison of the exponential regions, wherein the determining further comprises: identifying a minimal upper bound from the exponential region upper bounds; identifying a maximal lower bound from the exponential region lower bounds; determining the intersection region between the minimal upper bound and the maximal lower bound and determining the value of the smallest upper bound of the ordered set as the exponential region threshold for the data set; and if no intersection region is identified, discarding a target sequence amplification from the signal information and re-identifying the exponential region upper bound and the exponential region lower bound until an intersection is identified; identifying a threshold cycle for each target sequence amplification determined as the root of a polynomial identified using the exponential region threshold; and quantifying each target sequence using the threshold cycle.