Patent 7941279 was granted and assigned to NanoString Technologies on May, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods, computers, and computer program products for detecting the presence of a probe within a sample overlayed on a substrate are provided. The probe comprises a plurality of spatially arranged labels. A data storage module stores a plurality of light images, where each light image has light from the sample at a corresponding wavelength range in a plurality of different wavelength ranges. A label identification module identifies a plurality of labels in the plurality of light images that are proximate to each other on the substrate. A spatial order of the plurality of labels determines a string sequence of the plurality of labels. A probe identification module determines whether the string sequence of the plurality of labels comprises a valid reporter sequence.