Amoco Corporation

John K Eldredge

Mark L Collins

Kevin R Kearney

David V Morrissey

Massimo Lombardo

Cecile Blomquist

Novel reagents are provided along with methods for their use in nucleic acid hybridization assays for detecting target nucleic acids in samples. The most preferred reagent is a mixture of guanidinium thiocyanate and tetramethylammonium:Trifluoracetate and possesses many properties for facilitating hybridization between target nucleic acid and nucleic acid probes capable of binding thereto and surprisingly results in the phenomenon of superstoichiometric labeling.

Hybridization promotion reagents

Methods for improving the sensitivity of hybridization assays which reduce non-specific binding (NSB) and non-specific hybridization (NSH) are disclosed. The methods include a washing method utilizing tetraalkylammonium salts at high temperatures, and release methods in which a probe-target complex is released from a solid support and recaptured. Use of both the washing and release methods results in substantial reduction in NSB and NSH without performing several rounds of release and recapture of the target nucleic acids.

Growing community of inventors

Brewster, MA, United States of America

John K Eldredge