Biochip emerges from combination of microfabrication technology and biology technology. It integrates many discontinuous processes of life sciences such as sample preparation, chemical reaction and detection into the microchip and makes it become continuous and subminiature. Lab-on-a-chip, biochemistry analysis system based on biochip technology, has the features of small size, low cost, high automation, high analysis speed, high-information, contamination-proof little sample and reagent consumption, etc. It will be applied in the areas of biology, medical science, life science etc. in the near future. In this paper, the applications of biochip in the field of basic life science research and its recent development are reviewed.
Since DNA microarray technology was developed several years ago, it has been implemented in many biological fields. Migroarrays for gene-expression analysis provide an integrated platform for functional genomics research. Based on the platform, pharmacology finds a high throughput screening method in drug discovery and development, especially in validating novel therapeutic target, assessing drug efficacy and eliciting potential toxicity.
