PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15741344
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-12
Patent Classification: ["435", "287200"]

Abstract:
An apparatus for sequencing a nucleic acid by printing droplets at least some of which contain single nucleotides derived from the nucleic acid is provided. It is characterised by comprising; •a planar substrate having a face with droplet-receiving locations arranged in at least one track parallel to a first axis defining the substrate; ⋅a printer head comprising a plurality of droplet-dispensing nozzle groups juxtaposed above the droplet-receiving locations so that each nozzle group can in turn dispense a droplet into the droplet-receiving locations; •a means for stepping the printer head along the first axis relative to the droplet-receiving locations; ⋅a nucleotide-generating site upstream of the printer head by means of which an ordered stream of single nucleotides is created from the nucleic acid and delivered to a first droplet-dispensing nozzle group; •at least one source of incident electromagnetic radiation adapted to illuminate the droplet-receiving locations and ⋅at least one photodetector to detect adapted to detect fluorescence radiation emitted by each droplet-receiving location after illumination.

Claim (Index 15):
A method of sequencing a nucleic acid comprising the steps of (1) delivering a first aqueous medium containing a stream of single nucleotides derived from the nucleic acid, the ordering of which in the first aqueous medium corresponds to the sequence of the nucleic acid, to a first droplet nozzle group of a printer head; (2) printing a first droplet, containing a single nucleotide, from the first droplet nozzle group into at least one droplet-receiving location on a planar substrate; (3) thereafter printing into the same droplet receiving location(s) second or further aqueous droplets derived from at least one further droplet nozzle group arranged behind the first droplet-dispensing nozzle group wherein at least some of the further droplets contain at least one probe system comprising an oligonucleotide labelled with fluorophores and wherein the fluorophores are only detectable after release by exonucleolysis; a polymerase and a ligase; (4) allowing the fluorophores to be released at the droplet-receiving location(s); (5) illuminating the droplet-receiving location(s) with incident electromagnetic radiation and detecting fluorescence radiation characteristic of the single nucleotide emitted therefrom.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.87912
- Patent Class: 435.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15574005', '14682401', '14433409', '15725646', '14897069']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.5374041397833946
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.485491506223498
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.532212876427405
- Mean Citation Score: 188.947352
- Max Citation Score: 214.13603
- Similarity Product: 168.68839024722456

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test