Biosensors in Biomedical Research: Development and Applications of Gene Chips

Abstract

Nucleic-acid hybridisation techniques are a central tool for the genetic analysis of biological systems. Gene chips are complex arrays of recombinant plasmids or oligonucleotides immobilised on a glass chip of only 1 cm². This technology allows, for the first time, the multiparallel expression-analysis of thousands of genes. Gene chips will be indispensable tools for the upcoming analysis of the human genome, once the entire sequence is known.