Apparatus for sensitive detection and quantitative analysis of biological and biochemical substances

Claim 1

Apparatus for sensitively detecting and quantitatively analyzing biological and biochemical substances, which apparatus comprises: a cell for accommodating therein a test molecule labeled with a fluorescent dyestuff; an exciting optical system oriented in an X-axis or vertical direction relative to said cell for transmitting plane polarized light to excite said labeled molecule, said exciting optical system including a lens for transforming plane light originating from a light source placed in opposite relation to said cell in the X-axis direction, a filter for transmitting only monochromatic light out of the light passing through said lens, and a lens for collecting the monochromatic light from said transforming lens; a polarizing optical system oriented in a Y-axis or lateral direction relative to said cell for taking up fluorescent light emitted from said labeled molecule, said polarising optical system including a filter and a lens each for transmitting the fluorescent light only, and an analyzer for collecting parallel and perpendicularly polarized light from said molecule; a photomultiplier for measuring the fluorescence intensities of the parallel and perpendicularly polarized light; and a calculator for computing and converting the fluorescence intensities into the degree of polarization of said molecule.