Patent ID: 7097973

Claim:
A method for directly in - situ monitoring volatile compounds in a gas or vapor phase medium from a nucleic acid polymerase amplification reaction, in real-time during the reaction, which comprisies one or more nucleic acids, comprising the steps of: screening the medium with a multisensor array in the same container as said reaction so that more than one physico-chemical change of a gas or vapor phase of a nucleic acid is detected in real-time during the reaction by the multisensor to provide detected information to produce at least one signal output; transferring the signal output to a signal processing means responsive to differences in electromagnetic properties of the signal for generating a final output; receiving the final output into a pattern recognition means sufficient to generate a measurement pattern of the information; sorting the information in accordance with a set of class boundaries of the physico-chemical changes; and monitoring sorted information in real-time during the reaction that is representative of the identity and amount the one or more nucleic acids in the medium.