US-12625075-B2 - Light detection module and apparatus for detecting target analyte comprising the same

US12625075B2US 12625075 B2US12625075 B2US 12625075B2US-12625075-B2

Abstract

A light detection module according to the present disclosure includes an optical fiber mounting unit having a plurality of optical fibers disposed on one side thereof; a filter wheel spaced apart from the other side of the optical fiber mounting unit, the filter wheel having a plurality of filters; a drive unit for rotating the filter wheel; a light source unit for generating excitation light passing through the filter wheel; and a detection unit for detecting emission light passing through the filter wheel, wherein the plurality of filters includes a plurality of excitation light filters for filtering the excitation light and a plurality of emission light filters for filtering the emission light.

Inventors

Benjamin Vespone
ALEXANDER BANDAZIAN
Haskell Kent
Kevin Sweeney

Assignees

SEEGENE, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20221028

Claims (15)

1 . A light detection module comprising: an optical fiber mounting unit having a plurality of optical fibers comprising at least one excitation fiber and at least one emission fiber disposed on one side thereof; a filter wheel spaced apart from an opposite side of the optical fiber mounting unit, the filter wheel having a plurality of filters; a drive unit for rotating the filter wheel; a light source unit for generating excitation light passing through the filter wheel to said at least one excitation fiber; and a detection unit for detecting emission light passing through the filter wheel from said at least one emission fiber, wherein the plurality of filters includes a plurality of excitation light filters for filtering the excitation light and a plurality of emission light filters for filtering the emission light, wherein the drive unit comprises a drive shaft and a motor for rotating the drive shaft, and the filter wheel comprises a central shaft at a central axis linearly aligned to the drive shaft, wherein the filter wheel rotates about the central axis, wherein the light source unit comprises a plurality of light sources, and the detection unit comprises a plurality of detectors, wherein each of the plurality of light sources is positioned away from the central axis by a first radial distance, and each of the plurality of detectors is positioned away from the central axis by a second radial distance, wherein in the filter wheel, the plurality of excitation light filters is positioned away from the central axis by the first radial distance, and the plurality of emission light filters is positioned away from the central axis by the second radial distance, wherein a partition portion is formed between the plurality of light sources and the plurality of detectors, wherein the plurality of light sources, the plurality of detectors and the partition portion are disposed on a single plate, and wherein the filter wheel comprises a protruding portion formed between the plurality of excitation light filters and the plurality of emission light filters, and the protruding portion overlaps at least partially with the partition portion to block light leakage from between the plurality of light sources and the plurality of detectors.
2 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the partition portion comprises a first partition and a second partition protruding from the plate, and the first partition and the second partition are spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance.
3 . The light detection module of claim 2 , wherein the protruding portion is at least partially inserted between the first partition and the second partition.
4 . The light detection module of claim 1 , further comprising: a sample holder for accommodating a plurality of reaction vessels; and a cover for covering the top of the sample holder.
5 . The light detection module of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of reaction vessels is assigned into a plurality of sample regions, and a plurality of detectors in the detection unit each detects a signal emitted from a designated sample region among the plurality of sample regions.
6 . The light detection module of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of optical fibers is each connected to the optical fiber mounting unit at its one end and another end thereof is connected to the cover.
7 . The light detection module of claim 6 , wherein another end of each of the plurality of optical fibers is split into a plurality of strands by a fiber splitter.
8 . The light detection module of claim 7 , wherein a plurality of reaction vessels that are in one sample region are irradiated by one light source.
9 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the filter wheel further comprises an upper plate, a lower plate and a gasket fixed between the upper plate and the lower plate, and the plurality of excitation light filters and the plurality of emission light filters are mounted on the filter wheel by the gasket.
10 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the filter wheel comprises a main body and through-holes formed in the main body, and the plurality of excitation light filters and the plurality of emission light filters are fitted through the through-holes.
11 . An apparatus for detecting a target analyte comprising the light detection module of claim 1 , further comprising a controller for controlling the light detection module, and a thermal module configured to adjust the temperature of a sample.
12 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the filter wheel is rotatable between the plate and the optical fiber mounting unit.
13 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of light sources are separated from each other.
14 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of light sources is a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs).
15 . The light detection module of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of detectors are separated from each other.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a light detection module and an apparatus for detecting a target analyte including the same. BACKGROUND ART Recently, people's interest in health have been growing along with prolonged human life expectancy. Thus, the importance of accurate analysis of pathogens and in vitro nucleic acid-based molecular diagnosis such as genetic analysis for a patient has increased significantly, and the demand therefor is on the rise. Generally, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnosis is performed by extracting nucleic acids from a sample and confirming whether a target nucleic acid is present in the extracted nucleic acids. The most widely used nucleic acid amplification reaction, which is well-known as a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), repeats a cyclic process which includes denaturation of a double-stranded DNA, annealing of an oligonucleotide primer with a denatured DNA template, and extension of the primer by a DNA polymerase (Mullis et al.; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,195, 4,683,202 and 4,800,159; Saiki et al., (1985) Science 230, 1350-1354). Recently, various nucleic acid amplification apparatuses have been developed for performing a nucleic acid amplification reaction. An example of a nucleic acid amplification apparatus is configured to mount a vessel containing a sample solution including a template nucleic acid in one reaction chamber, and to perform a nucleic acid amplification reaction by repeatedly heating and cooling the vessel. In order to amplify a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) having a specific nucleotide sequence, the apparatus for a nucleic acid amplification reaction may perform a denaturing step, an annealing step, and an extension (or amplification) step. The DNA denaturation is performed at about 95° C., and the annealing and extension of primers are performed at a temperature of 55° C. to 75° C. which is lower than 95° C. Light sources emit excitement light to samples, and fluorescent materials in the samples which are excited by the excitation light emit fluorescence. Detectors are configured to sense the emission light emitted from the fluorescent materials to analyze amplification reaction. For an apparatus in such an optical signal detection manner, it is required to accurately provide excitation light to the samples and accurately provide emission light to the detectors. In order to excite only a specific optical label to be detected among optical labels in the sample, a filter for a light source is placed on an excitation light path between the light source and the sample to selectively pass only light of a specific wavelength among the light radiated from the light source. In a similar manner, in order to detect emission light emitted from the specific optical label, a filter for a detector is placed on an emission light path between the sample and the detector to selectively pass the emission light emitted from the specific optical label among the light radiated from the sample. By placing the filters corresponding to the target optical label on each of the excitation light path and the emission light path, noise can be reduced and fluorescence can be precisely detected. Meanwhile, in order to detect the different optical labels among several of them in the sample, the same number of filters as the number of detection channels is required on the light source side as well as the detector side. In order to detect at least two or more different optical labels, a filter set including at least two or more filters corresponding to the number of detection channels should be placed on the light source side as well as the detector side. The plurality of filters in each filter set moves in turn to perform filtering for each channel. The apparatus for detecting an optical signal includes a drive device for moving the filters. According to the conventional detection method, it is difficult to reduce the time taken to perform filtering while alternately moving the filters. In other words, there is a limit in providing faster results. In addition, due to the drive device for moving the filters along with other components, the overall cost of preparing the light detection module increases, and the volume of the module also increases, thus lowering space efficiency. As such, it is necessary to develop a light detection module, and an apparatus for detecting a target analyte including the same, which is capable of reducing the time taken to receive detection results in a situation where rapid detection is required, and is economical and space efficient. PRIOR ART DOCUMENT Patent Document (Patent document 1) U.S. Pat. No. 8,236,504 (Aug. 7, 2012) SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Task The present disclosure is to provide a light detection module and an apparatus for detecting a target analyte including the same. The technical tasks to be solved by the present disclosure are not limited to the aforementioned technical task. Means for Solving the Task According to an embod