US Patent 10329605 Method to increase sensitivity of detection of low-occurrence mutations

A method for detecting a low-occurrence mutation in isolated DNA adds a blocking probe to reagents during amplification of the isolated DNA. The blocking probe is an oligonucleotide complementary to wild-type DNA corresponding to the sample. The blocking probe spans a site of a suspected mutation within a region of interest in the isolated DNA. After amplification, fragments of the amplified DNA is sequenced using next generating sequencing and an output is generated to display the sequenced fragments. In some embodiments, the blocking probe is locked nucleic acid (LNA).