BioMEMS for cellular manipulation and analysis

Since the introduction of Micro-electro-mechanical systems in the early 70's, the significance of the biomedical applications of these miniature systems has been realized [54, 77]. BioMEMS, the abbreviation for Biomedical or Biological Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems, is nowa heavily researched area with a wide variety of important biomedical applications. In general, BioMEMS, and its synonym BioChip, can be defined as Devices or systems, constructed using techniques inspired from micro/ nanoscale fabrication, that are used for processing, delivery, manipulation, analysis, or construction of biological and chemical entities. A large number of BioMEMS devices and applications have been presented in [4, 34, 41, 57]. Technologies such as lab-on-a-chip and Micro-Total-Analysis-Systems (micro-TAS or μTAS), when used for biological applications, fall into the BioMEMS category. The use of these lab-on-a-chips for cellular analysis is justified by, (i) reducing the sensor element to the scale of size of cells and smaller and hence providing a higher sensitivity, (ii) reduced reagent volumes and associated costs, (iii) reduced time to result due to small volumes resulting in higher effective concentrations, (iv) amenability of portability and miniaturization of the entire system, and (v) ability to perform large numbers of assays or measurements in parallel. Since the introduction of Micro-electro-mechanical systems in the early 70's, the significance of the biomedical applications of these miniature systems has been realized [54, 77]. BioMEMS, the abbreviation for Biomedical or Biological Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems, is nowa heavily researched area with a wide variety of important biomedical applications. In general, BioMEMS, and its synonym BioChip, can be defined as Devices or systems, constructed using techniques inspired from micro/ nanoscale fabrication, that are used for processing, delivery, manipulation, analysis, or construction of biological and chemical entities. A large number of BioMEMS devices and applications have been presented in [4, 34, 41, 57]. Technologies such as lab-on-a-chip and Micro-Total-Analysis-Systems (micro-TAS or μTAS), when used for biological applications, fall into the BioMEMS category. The use of these lab-on-a-chips for cellular analysis is justified by, (i) reducing the sensor element to the scale of size of cells and smaller and hence providing a higher sensitivity, (ii) reduced reagent volumes and associated costs, (iii) reduced time to result due to small volumes resulting in higher effective concentrations, (iv) amenability of portability and miniaturization of the entire system, and (v) ability to perform large numbers of assays or measurements in parallel.