The State of the Microarray: Microarray Instrumentation

Courtesy of CombiMatrix

Despite a relatively mature marketplace for array instrumentation, new contenders continue to squeeze between the cracks to vie for market share. Currently, there are both new offerings from old standbys and new faces in the scanner and arrayer world.

A number of companies introduced new array platforms last year. Two of these, QIAGEN's SensiChip system and Amersham Biosciences' CodeLink platform, are discussed elsewhere in this issue. Gaithersburg, Md.-based MetriGenix added a new dimension--two, actually--to the world of arrays with its "fourdimensional" Flow-Thru Chip™ (FTC) technology.¹ Though standard two-dimensional biochips bear DNA probes arrayed in microscale spots, MetriGenix's microfluidic biochips contain probes affixed to the inner surfaces of ordered microchannels, providing a third dimension. The controlled flow of labeled target and reagents through these microfluidic channels provides the fourth dimension. This flow-through design effectively increases the array's surface area-to-volume ratio, driving down hybridization times and increasing signal...