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Biotech / Medical : QDEL - Quidel more quick diagnosis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David B. who wrote (1505)	9/2/1998 12:43:00 PM
From: David B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1693

Engineers and computer scientists are biotechnology's new heroes. Several projects in academia and the commercial sector are combining the life sciences, information technology, and mechanics to create bleeding-edge biotechnology applications that are capable of radically changing the medical world. Drug discovery, or development, is traditionally a time-consuming, cumbersome, and hit-or-miss process in which researchers test thousands of chemical compounds on cell cultures and lab animals and look for salutary effects. However, new drug development technologies and the reams of genetic data produced by the Human Genome Project and genomics companies have spurred the development of various tools, like advanced biochips, to speed processes, make research easier, and reduce costs. The concept of the biochip--a glass chip imprinted with thousands of different nucleic-acid sequences for use in genetic analysis--has applied to the development of entire laboratories on a chip. Whereas biochips are merely diagnostic tools, these "labs-on-a-chip" can extract substances from and conduct experiments on samples. A tiny bit of a sample, like blood, is placed on the lab chip, manipulated in some way, and fed into a mechanical chip reader for analysis; the data is in turn fed into a computer. This miniaturization of lab operations could ultimately save researchers a great deal of time and money, according to Elizabeth Silverman, a biotechnology analyst at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens. The private companies concentrating on this area include Aclara BioSciences (formerly Soane BioSciences), of Hayward, California, and Palo Alto-based Caliper Technologies, which will release a first-generation lab-on-a-chip within a year. Both companies' chips use microfluidic technology, in which electrical impulses stimulate particular molecules to move them through microcapillaries. Orchid Biocomputer, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is developing credit card-size lab chips that use both microfluidic and microchemical technologies for testing. Even more ambitious research is occurring in the field of biomimetic microelectrical mechanical systems, or MEMSs. These are mechanical systems that mimic and learn from biology to automate minute procedures, like drug delivery on the molecular level. Built by University of Tokyo researchers, the first of these MEMSs--a ciliary motion system--was named after its model, the multiple hairlike arms with which certain types of bacteria locomote. Dartmouth professor Bruce Donald also conducts MEMS research using the cilia model. He is developing a MEMS device, capable of detecting cancer proteins, that will be implanted in the body. The device will radio for help in synthesizing a combative drug from supercomputers running drug-design software. After receiving radio-transmitted feedback from the computer, the device will synthesize the correct drug molecule (most likely from available proteins) and disperse it over the diseased site using its cilia. In a related effort, Mr. Donald is working with University of Washington professor Karl Bohringer and Dartmouth professor Daniela Rus to model designs for microrobots on flagella--long whiplike appendages that propel certain bacteria through liquid or across solid surfaces. Like many other industries, biotechnology continues moving toward miniaturization. Technologies like labs-on-a-chip will be rapidly surpassed and replaced by smaller and more sophisticated versions. And roving MEMSs equipped with life-saving drugs may revolutionize the way we administer medicine.