| Although the term 'lab-on-a-chip' is relatively new, the concept of applying chip technology to miniaturise analytical instruments is not. Its roots can be traced back to 1975 when the first attempts were made to use chip technology to miniaturise analytical instruments such as gas chromatographs. Technical problems prevented commercial success of the initial attempts. In recent years, however, the development of the new field of microfluidics has established itself as an important research area and is starting to appear in commercial products. There is great interest within the pharmaceutical industry in lab-on-a-chip devices because they promise to speed up the discovery process by allowing researchers to perform more analyses faster, more accurately and reproducibly whilst using much smaller sample volumes than is possible with conventional technology. |
