Introduction to Biochips and Related Technologies

Abstract

The biochip is the most recent breakthrough in life sciences. The technology is multi-disciplinary that it involves biology, chemistry, physics, electrical & mechanical engineering, computer sciences, and others. There are several types of biochips, e.g., DNA chips, antibody/peptide chips, lab-on-a-chips. Different biochips have different applications in both basic and applied research fields. The applications cover broad disciplines and the technologies are already employed in medical studies as well as in agricultural studies. In the presentation, a general introduction to various biochips, their potential applications, and fabrication methods will be discussed. Of all the biochips, DNA chip is a relatively mature technology and many commercial companies have started providing services to fabricate either off-the-shelf or custom DNA chips for their customers. Nevertheless, different applications require different analysis strategies for extracting significant and useful information from the mass amount of data generated by DNA chip experiments. Bioinformatics related to DNA chip fabrication, development, and data analysis will be discussed at the introductory level.