Patent ID: 7037687

Claim:
A method of nucleic acid sequencing, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a nucleic acid template/primer system comprising individual template/primer duplexes immobilized on a surface; (b) exposing said individual template/primer duplexes to a polymerase and one or more type of nucleotide comprising an optically-detectable label, wherein said optically-detectable label is not attached to the 3′ position of the sugar moiety of said nucleotide; (c) removing nucleotide that is not incorporated into a primer; (d) detecting incorporated nucleotide by the presence of said label; (e) removing said label from said incorporated nucleotide; (f) repeating steps (b) through (e) at least once with a different type of nucleotide comprising an optically-detectable label for incorporation into said primer; and (g) determining a nucleic acid sequence based upon said incorporated nucleotides.