What is claimed is:
1. A method for detecting the presence of at least one selected strain of an organism in a sample, comprising the steps of:
providing a sample that may comprise nucleic acid from at least one selected strain of an organism and nucleic acid from at least one non-selected strain of the organism;
providing a plurality of primers substantially complementary to regions of both said nucleic acid from at least one selected strain of the organism and said nucleic acid from at least one non-selected strain of the organism;
exposing said sample to at least one probe that is sufficiently complementary to a portion of said nucleic acid from at least one non-selected strain to block full length amplification of said nucleic acid from at least one non-selected strain between said plurality of primers, said at least one probe comprising a nucleic acid analog;
amplifying said nucleic acid from at least one selected strain between said plurality of primers; and
detecting amplification product of nucleic acid from at least one selected strain.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one selected strain comprises a pathogenic strain.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein said sample is derived from a subject and said pathogenic strain indicates a risk of cancerous growth in said subject.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said organism comprises human papilloma virus (HPV).
5. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one probe comprises PNA.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein said at least one probe further comprises a nucleotide different from PNA.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said at least one probe comprises at least 8 bases.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of amplifying said nucleic acid of at least one selected strain between said plurality of primers comprises conducting a reaction selected from the group consisting of a polymerase chain reaction, a ligase chain reaction, a rolling circle replication, a branched chain amplification, a nucleic acid based sequence amplification (NASBA), a Cleavase Fragment Length Polymorphism, ICAN and RAM.
9. The method of claim 4, wherein said regions of both said nucleic acids are parts of a region selected from the group consisting of L1, L2, E1, E6, and E7 region.
10. The method of claim 4, wherein said at least one non-selected strain equals all the low-risk HPV strains known.
11. The method of claim 4, wherein said at least one non-selected strain is selected from the group consisting of HPV strains 6, 11, 42, 43, and 44.
12. The method of claim 4, wherein said at least one selected strain comprises a plurality of high-risk HPV strains.
13. The method of claim 4, wherein said plurality of primers comprise MY09 and MY11 (SEQ. ID. NOS. 10 and 11).
14. The method of claim 4, wherein said at least one probe is selected from the group of sequences consisting of SEQ. ID. NO. 6 and SEQ. ID. NO. 7.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein said sample is a cervical scraping.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of detecting amplification product comprises in-gel electrophoresis of said product and staining said product with ethidium bromide.
17. A method for detecting the presence of a target nucleic acid of a human papilloma virus (HPV) in a sample cell, comprising the steps of:
suspending a sample cell in a solution;
isolating a target nucleic acid of a HPV from said sample cell; contacting said target nucleic acid with at least one probe comprising peptide nucleic acid (PNA), said at least one probe being substantially complementary to portions of nucleic acids of multiple HPV types; and
detecting hybridization between said at least one probe and said target nucleic acid.
18. The method of claim 1, wherein said solution contains an alcohol in an amount sufficient to fix sample cells without coagulation, an anti-clumping agent, and a buffer agent that maintains the solution at a pH within a range of about 4 to about 7.
19. The method of claim 1, wherein said sample cells come from a subject and wherein the presence of said target nucleic acid sequence indicates a risk of tumor growth in said subject.
20. The method of claim 4, wherein said tumorous growth is associated with either cervical cancer or endocervical carcinoma.
21. The method of claim 3, wherein the presence of said target nucleic acid sequence is indicative of the presence of a particular type of HPV.
22. The method of claim 7, wherein said particular type of HPV is selected from the group consisting of types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68 and 70.
23. The method of claim 3, wherein absence of said target nucleic acid sequence is diagnostic of absence of infection by HPV.
24. The method of claim 3, wherein absence of said target nucleic acid sequence is diagnostic of absence of infection by HPV types selected from the group consisting of types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68 and 70.
25. The method of claim 1, wherein absence of said target nucleic acid sequence is diagnostic of absence of infection by high-risk types of HPV.
26. The method of claim 1, further comprising amplification of said target nucleic acid.
27. The method of claim 12, wherein said amplification step comprises conducting a polymerase chain reaction.
28. The method of claim 1, further comprising capturing said target nucleic acid onto a solid support through PNA-DNA interaction.
29. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said at least one probe comprises at least 8 bases.
30. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one probe comprises a nucleotide different from PNA.
31. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one probe is selected from the group consisting of SEQ. ID. NOS. 1-5.
32. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one probe is labeled with a detectable marker.
33. The method of claim 17 wherein said at least one probe comprises a molecular beacon probe.
34. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an antibody to recognize said hybridization.
35. A method for detecting the presence of a target nucleic acid of a human papilloma virus (HPV) in a sample, comprising the steps of:
capturing candidate nucleic acids that include a target nucleic acid on a solid support;
contacting said candidate nucleic acids with at least one probe comprising peptide nucleic acid (PNA), said at least one probe being substantially complementary to portions of nucleic acids of multiple HPV types; and
detecting hybridization between said at least one probe and a target nucleic acid.
36. The method of claim 20, wherein capturing candidate nucleic acids comprises DNA-DNA interaction.
37. A method for in situ detection of the presence of a target nucleic acid of a human papilloma virus (HPV) in a sample, comprising the steps of:
transferring suspended sample cells uniformly onto a surface;
in situ hybridizing a target nucleic acid of a HPV contained in said cells with at least one probe comprising peptide nucleic acid (PNA), said at least one probe being substantially complementary to portions of nucleic acids of multiple HPV types; and
detecting hybridization between said at least one probe and a target nucleic acid.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An actuator comprising:
a fixed member;
a movable member;
a movable member supporting means for supporting the movable member so as to permit the movable member to move to an arbitrary position in a plane in parallel with the fixed member;
at least three actuating coils attached to either one of the fixed member and the movable member;
actuating magnets attached to the remaining one of the fixed member and the movable member in positions corresponding to the actuating coils so as to apply magnetic force to the corresponding actuating coils to affect each other when current flows in the actuating coils;
a position sensing means for detecting a relative position of the movable member to the fixed member; and
a control means for producing a coil position command signal on the basis of a command signal to instruct the position where the movable member is to be moved, and for controlling the drive current to flow in each of the actuating coils in response to the coil position command signal and the position data detected by the position sensing means.
2. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein the position sensing means is a magnetic sensor that detects a variation in magnetism, and it resides in position corresponding to each of the actuating magnets so as to detect the varied position of each actuating magnet.
3. The actuator according to claim 2, wherein the magnetic sensor is located inside each of the actuating coils.
4. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein the movable member supporting means is comprised of three spherical members interposed between the opposing faces of the fixed member and the movable member.
5. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein the actuating magnets are positioned on a predetermined circle, and at least one of the actuating magnets is arranged so that its magnetic neutral axis approximately directed in a radial direction of the circle.
6. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein there are three of the actuating coils, and these three actuating coils are disposed on a predetermined circle, each of the actuating coils being angularly away from each other by a central angle ranging from 90 degrees to 180 degrees.
7. The actuator according to claim 1, wherein there are three of the actuating coils, namely, first, second and third actuating coils, and these three actuating coils are disposed on a circle centered at a predetermined point so that they are angularly separated from each other at central angles of 90 degrees between the first and second actuating coils, (90+\u03b1) degrees between the second and third actuating coils, and (180\u2212\u03b1) degrees between the third and first actuating coils where 0\u2266\u03b1\u226690 is satisfied.
8. The actuator according to claim 6, wherein the actuating magnets arranged on the predetermined circle in positions corresponding to the actuating coils, so that magnetic neutral axes of the actuating magnets are approximately directed to radial direction of the circle, and the control means, upon receiving the command signal to rotate the movable member, produces the coil position command signal of the same level to the actuating coils so as to permit the movable member to rotate about the center of the circle on which the actuating magnets are disposed.
9. The actuator according to claim 7, wherein the actuating magnets are disposed on a predetermined circle in positions corresponding to the first, second and third actuating coils, so that magnetic neutral axes of the actuating magnets are approximately directed to radial direction of the circle, and the control means, upon receiving the command signal to translate the movable member, produces a coil position command signal rX related to the first actuating coil, a coil position command signal rY related to the second actuating coil, and a coil position command signal rv=rx cos \u03b1\u2212ry sin \u03b1 related to the third actuating coil to induce an only translation motion of the movable member.
10. An actuator comprising:
a fixed member;
a movable member;
a movable member supporting means for supporting the movable member so as to permit the movable member to move to an arbitrary position in a plane in parallel with the fixed member; and
a drive means for translating and rotating the movable member relative to the fixed member.
11. A lens unit comprising:
a lens barrel;
a photographing lens housed in the lens barrel;
a fixed member secured to the lens barrel;
a movable member carrying an image stabilizing lens;
a movable member supporting means for supporting the movable member so as to permit the movable member to move to an arbitrary position in a plane in parallel with the fixed member;
at least three actuating coils attached to either one of the fixed member and the movable member;
actuating magnets attached to the remaining one of the fixed member and the movable member in positions corresponding to the actuating coils for applying magnetic force to the corresponding actuating coils to affect each other when current flows in the actuating coils;
a position sensing means for detecting a relative position of the movable member to the fixed member;
a vibration sensing means for detecting vibrations of the lens barrel;
a lens position command signal generating means for generating a lens position command signal to instruct where the image stabilizing lens is to be moved on the basis of a detection signal from the vibration sensing means; and
a control means for producing a coil position command signal related to the actuating coils on the basis of the lens position command signal from the lens position command signal generating means, and for controlling drive current to flow in the actuating coils in response to the coil position command signal and the position data detected by the position sensing means.
12. A lens unit comprising:
a lens barrel;
a photographing lens housed in the lens barrel;
a fixed member attached to the lens barrel;
a movable member carrying an image stabilizing lens;
a movable member supporting means for supporting the movable member so as to permit the movable member to move to an arbitrary position in a plane in parallel with the fixed member; and
a drive means for translating and rotating the movable member relative to the fixed member in the plane in parallel with the fixed member.
13. A camera having a lens unit defined in claim 11.