Miniaturized analytical assays in biotechnology

Biotechnology today is a well-established paradigm in many areas of human endeavor, such as the pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, management of the environment and many others. Meanwhile, biology is undergoing a spectacular transition: whereas systematic biology was replaced gradually by molecular biology, the latter is rapidly being transformed into a new systematic era in which entire genomes are being charted by ever more sophisticated analytical techniques. In the wake of this onslaught of data, new fields are germinating, such as bioinformatics in an attempt to find answers to fundamental questions, answers that may be hidden in the massive amounts of data already available today.