Biochips: from sci-fi to critical tech
by Margaret Quan
eet.com
Once relegated to science fiction, chips that analyze biological material to diagnose disease, aid in drug discovery and deliver medicine inside the body will provide the basis for major research and commercial breakthroughs in the 21st century. In 2010, a patient may go to a doctor's office for a blood test with a lab-on-a-chip device that tells the doctor in real-time if a patient's illness will respond well to a drug based on his DNA. The chip could also confirm the patient's identity, diagnose disease and even be used to establish paternity. Indeed, these are heady times for electronics engineers and researchers marrying semiconductor technologies and techniques with biology, chemistry and genetics.
John Santini Jr., PhD, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher, heads MicroChips, a Cambridge, Mass., startup developing controlled-release microchips that deliver drugs inside or outside the body. The company is in the early stage of developing technology, but its goal is to develop a silicon chip with tiny wells filled with drug compounds that can be released in the body in a controlled manner via a pre-programmed microchip.
Although the field of biochips is lucrative today, the path to the biochip was not always clear.
Santini admits the idea of such a device was science fiction years ago-especially a microchip device that could operate on its own in the body. snip....
Not sure where to put this link, but thought this might be appropriate. "New" technology and all with mentions of: Motorola, Nanogen, Affymetrix Inc., and Hyseq Inc.
Jim |
