Biochips are computer-chip look alikes intended to perform biochemical procedures speedily, reliably and inexpensively in the field of biology/medicine. They are ultra miniaturised processors doing complex tasks. The real interest behind biochips is the huge wave of potential it could bring to the IT and Computer industry of the future. This however is still some way away and the current applications of biochips lie mostly in medical sector. We set out below to give some idea of the potential of this technology and the current focus in the medical arena.

An interesting case is one of Dr. Daniel Man, from Boca Raton, Florida who holds a patent of a biochip, which would enable lost human beings to be tracked by the satellite. His chip has a big footprint and needs miniaturisation as well as regulatory approval. However when it comes to reality we will be able to locate lost children, downed soldiers, drowned swimmers and wandering Alzheimer’s patients.

For medical cases, Jeffery Hausdorff of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (Boston) has invented an external chip to monitor the number of strides, which is directly proportional to patient’s activity level. This is extremely helpful in determining the treatment of patients with congestive heart failure. Tom Ferrell of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge) has oxygen sensor chips, which also monitors pulses. He has also invented temperature-sensing chips, which as name suggests monitors body temperature. This chip will be extremely helpful to chemotherapy patients who are susceptible to sudden rise in temperature in response to anti-cancer drugs. Sensors for Medicine & Science, Inc. (Germantown, Md.) offers S4MS-injectable biochips for diabetics to monitor the sugar level in the blood. This will save diabetic patients from all the skin pricks, which is must for current blood sugar monitoring method.

A very beneficial case is the development by the Activa (a biochip implant), offered by Medtronic, Inc. (Minneapolis), which is an ultimate solution for the Parkinson’s patients. Parkinson’s patients suffer from dying brain messenger dopamine (a product of brain cells), which is replaced by drugs during the treatment. However, eventually the drug’s effect wears off and the erratic movements come charging back. Another option to drug treatment is thalamotomy (removal of a portion of brain). The Activa implant offers a unique solution by working the same way as the thalamotomy; but without the risks. After implantation it turn off the brain signals that cause uncontrolled movements or tremors, and it can be simply switched off in case of any post-operative problems.

The most ambitious bioengineers are trying to add back the brain functions like restoring sight and sound. The two most successful implants are the Clarion (developed at the University of California at San Francisco, Research Triangle Institute, N.C. and Advanced Bionics Corporation of Sylmar, Calif.) and the Nucleus (developed at the University of Melbourne, Australia and made by Cochlear of Sydney, Australia). The Clarion cochlear implant helps individuals who are unable to hear. According to Steve Rebscher, a member of UCSF team, currently two thirds to three quarters of patients can understand speech without lip-reading. Joseph Rizzo (Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary) and John Wyatt (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are working in invention of biochips to restore eyesight. Eugene de Juan of Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute (Baltimore) is working in the same direction. In Germany, the government has pledged approximate $10m to two significant projects; one in which chips will be implanted on the surface of the retina and the other project where chips will be implanted at the back of the retina. Eberhart Zrenner of University of Tübingen, Germany is also working in the direction of retinal biochips.

Current biochips are function-focused. Biochip constructed to perform one specific function cannot be modified or programmed to perform any other function. Though some of them can be reused. In future standardisation will be extremely beneficial, e.g. standardisation of the motherboard so that it can read a variety of biochips performing different tests/tasks instead of one. Biochips are mainly used in genomic research for gene identification or identification of mutations in a given gene. It can also be used to detect bacterial/viral contamination in given sample. As can be seen below this segment is currently when the money is.

 

Industry Structure

Biochips are eventually going to become one of the most powerful tools in the biotechnology industry. The biochip industry is growing explosively. Along with the equipment & services, the US biochip market is expected to exceed $1.6 Billion by 2004. This market growth is led by numerous applications, which includes gene expression profiling to detect defects or sequence variation, single-nucleotide polymorphism identification (SNP) and typing and proteomic applications.

Today the biochip industry is dominated by Affymetrix. It has developed systems for quick analysis of genetic codes of human beings & many other model organisms like mice, fruit flies, yeast, etc. Affymetrix has a biochip that can detect the presence of 12,500 different human genes. Other important biochips from Affymetrix includes p53 tumor-supressor gene chip. It is also working with Glaxo Wellcome to create biochip, which will distinguish between 100,000 different SNPs. Zyomyx, Inc. is big name in protein chip technology, which can be useful in the areas of diagnostics, pharmacogenomics & screening tools for biomedical research. According to the latest announcement U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has issued it a broad patent covering fundamental protein chip technology. Other important players in biochip industry are APBiotech, Genomic Solutions, Hyseq, Incyte Genomics, Vysis and Molecular Dynamics.

Leading technology companies like Aglient Technologies, IBM, Motorola, Packard BioScience, etc. have also entered in the field. In fact Motorola, Packard Instrument and the US government’s Argonne National Laboratory have already teamed up for mass production of biochips. In this particular case, Argonne and the Russian Academy of Science’s Englehardt Institute of Molecular Biology (Moscow) have provided their 19 inventions related to biochips and Motorola & Packard will contribute $19million over the next five years to support the research.

 

Future Implications

Biochips are fast, accurate, miniaturised and soon expected to become economically advantageous. In future biochip technology will overcome many technological barriers like standardisation of motherboard. Current biochips are single purpose and its expected that in some areas of diagnostics it will become multi-purpose, e.g. in analysis of given sample for numerous pathogens instead of one.

Biomedical research will continue to be the leading biochip application user for some time to come. Of these, Pharmaceutical and academic laboratories will remain the leading consumers of biochips. Biochips will help speed up the drug discovery process and create more powerful tools for diagnostic, disease management, toxicological monitoring and other applications.

Expected near term biochip applications are for disease like Thalassaemia, Tay-Sach’s dis., spinal muscular atrophies, retinoblastoma, neurological disorders, enzyme deficiencies, etc. Expected biochips will also be available for a variety of pathogens. Apart from this in the medical diagnostic area, the types of testing performed by biochips are expected to expand to include quantitative level.

Also with the presence of the IT companies we will see usage expanded to this area.

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Ref: TP0050A02V01