Patent ID: 7914987

Claim:
A method for detecting an analyte in a sample comprising: (a) producing a mixture by combining said sample and at least one set of at least first and second proximity probes each comprising an analyte binding domain and a nucleic acid binding domain, wherein said first and second proximity probes can simultaneously bind to said analyte; (b) combining said mixture with: (i) a first asymmetric connector comprising a first region of complementarity for said nucleic acid binding domain of said first proximity probe and a second region of complementarity for said nucleic acid binding domain of said second proximity probe, wherein said first region is longer that said second region; and (ii) a second asymmetric connector comprising a first region of complementarity for said nucleic acid binding domain of said second proximity probe and a second region of complementarity for said nucleic acid binding domain of said first proximity probe, wherein said first region is longer than said second region; wherein said first and second asymmetric connectors have substantially opposite binding characteristics with respect to said first and second proximity probes and with respect to each other; and (c) detecting a connector mediated proximity dependent interaction between said first and second proximity probes to detect the presence of said analyte in said sample.