Re: [DIYbio] Re: How does Helicos see single molecule fluorescence?

Here's a patent of theirs:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=TfEAAgAAEBAJ

On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Nathan McCorkle <nmz787@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks John!
>
> I imagine the CCD is back-thinned and cooled, and from the size of the
> Helicos cabinet (and the video showing the CCD samples hybridization
> area in sections), I wonder if they're stepping the optics/wafer
> around like a microchip mask aligner... with servos and encoders for
> rough positioning, and interferometers for fine positioning (unless
> they ensure their stepper motors are repeatable enough, through high
> holding torque, if they're using steppers)
>
> Seems like a PMT would do the job for a single reaction center!
>
> On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:23 PM, singlemolecule
> <thompson.john.f@gmail.com> wrote:
>> If you want more information on what the optical/camera system looks like
>> (as well as more detail on other aspects), go to
>> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2954431/ and look at figure 2.
>>
>> S
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, August 23, 2012 11:00:29 AM UTC-4, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
>>>
>>> This video says they take sheared ssDNA, add polyA tail, hybridize
>>> about 1 molecule per square micron on a surface coated with polyT,
>>> then add polymerase and a single species of fluorescent nucleotide,
>>> rinse, illuminate with laser light and scan the surface with a camera,
>>> cleave fluorophore, then repeat with a different species of nucleotide
>>> and more polymerase.
>>>
>>> http://www.helicosbio.com/Portals/0/Videos/tSMS-How_It_Works.flv
>>>
>>> I wonder if they're using a single pixel camera with a PMT backend?
>>>
>>> I wonder if I could replicate with just 1 pixel (1 molecule only), I
>>> could use this to provide feedback for closed-loop DNA synthesis
>>> operations.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Nathan McCorkle
>>> Rochester Institute of Technology
>>> College of Science, Biotechnology/Bioinformatics
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Nathan McCorkle
> Rochester Institute of Technology
> College of Science, Biotechnology/Bioinformatics



--
Nathan McCorkle
Rochester Institute of Technology
College of Science, Biotechnology/Bioinformatics

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