Granted Patent B2

US 12,618,845 · App. 18/955,622 · Granted May 5, 2026

Inventors: Brian Reed (Madison, CT); Jeremy Lackey (Foster City, CA); Haidong Huang (Madison, CT)

Assignee: Quantum-Si Incorporated

G01N33/581C07K14/47C07K19/00C12Q1/6806G01N1/28G01N21/6428G01N33/58G01N33/582G01N33/6821G01N33/6824G16B25/10G16B40/00G16B40/10G16B50/30G01N2021/6439G01N2458/00G16B30/00G16B50/00

Abstract

Claims (39)

1 . A method of sequencing a polypeptide, the method comprising:

a) contacting a single polypeptide molecule with a composition comprising one or more terminal amino acid recognition molecules;

b) detecting signal pulses indicative of association of the one or more terminal amino acid recognition molecules with a terminus of the single polypeptide molecule;

c) contacting the single polypeptide molecule with a composition comprising one or more cleaving reagents; and

d) repeating (a)-(c) one or more times,

wherein the detected signal pulses form a series of signal pulses that is indicative of a series of amino acids exposed at the terminus over time as a result of terminal amino acid cleavage by the one or more cleaving reagents, and

wherein the single polypeptide molecule is immobilized to a surface through a linkage group comprising an oligonucleotide.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein association of the one or more terminal amino acid recognition molecules with each type of amino acid exposed at the terminus produces a characteristic pattern in the series of signal pulses that is different from other types of amino acids exposed at the terminus.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the characteristic pattern comprises a portion of the series of signal pulses.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein a signal pulse of the characteristic pattern corresponds to an individual association event between a terminal amino acid recognition molecule and an amino acid exposed at the terminus.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the characteristic pattern is indicative of the amino acid exposed at the terminus of the single polypeptide molecule and an amino acid at a contiguous position.

6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein signal pulses of the characteristic pattern comprise a mean pulse duration of between about 10 milliseconds and about 100 milliseconds or between about 100 milliseconds and about 500 milliseconds.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more terminal amino acid recognition molecules comprises a degradation pathway protein, a peptidase, an antibody, an aminotransferase, a tRNA synthetase, or an SH2 domain-containing protein or fragment thereof.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more terminal amino acid recognition molecules comprises a detectable label.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the detectable label is a luminescent label.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sequencing comprises identifying at least a portion of all types of successive amino acids exposed at the terminus of the single polypeptide molecule while the single polypeptide molecule is being degraded by the one or more cleaving reagents.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sequencing comprises identifying that an amino acid of the single polypeptide molecule comprises a post-translational modification.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the post-translational modification is selected from acetylation, ADP-ribosylation, caspase cleavage, citrullination, formylation, N-linked glycosylation, O-linked glycosylation, hydroxylation, methylation, myristoylation, neddylation, nitration, oxidation, palmitoylation, phosphorylation, prenylation, S-nitrosylation, sulfation, sumoylation, and ubiquitination.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the amino acid of the single polypeptide molecule comprises phospho-tyrosine or phospho-serine.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the linkage group comprises a biotin molecule and an avidin protein.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the avidin protein comprises streptavidin, traptavidin, tamavidin, bradavidin, or xenavidin.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the avidin protein comprises streptavidin.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the surface comprises a surface of a substrate.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the substrate comprises an array of sample wells.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the single polypeptide molecule is immobilized within a sample well of the array.

20 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the substrate comprises a plurality of polypeptide sequencing reactions, each polypeptide sequencing reaction occurring in an individual sample well of the array.

21 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising, prior to (a):

contacting the substrate with the single polypeptide molecule,

wherein the surface of the substrate comprises a polypeptide conjugating moiety and the single polypeptide molecule comprises a surface conjugating moiety, and

wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety attaches to the surface conjugating moiety to form the linkage group, thereby immobilizing the single polypeptide molecule to the surface of the substrate.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety is attached to the surface of the substrate through the oligonucleotide prior to the immobilizing.

23 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the surface conjugating moiety is attached to the single polypeptide molecule through the oligonucleotide prior to the immobilizing.

24 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety forms a non-covalent attachment with the surface conjugating moiety.

25 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety comprises a biotin molecule and the surface conjugating moiety comprises an avidin protein.

26 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety comprises an avidin protein and the surface conjugating moiety comprises a biotin molecule.

27 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety forms a covalent attachment with the surface conjugating moiety.

28 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the surface conjugating moiety is a reactive moiety selected from an amine, azide, alkyne, nitrone, alkene, tetrazine, and tetrazole.

29 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the polypeptide conjugating moiety is a reactive moiety selected from an amine, azide, alkyne, nitrone, alkene, tetrazine, and tetrazole.

30 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises contacting the single polypeptide molecule with a single composition comprising the one or more terminal amino acid recognition molecules and the one or more cleaving reagents.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (6)

References Cited (248)