As the result in the "wedding" of semi-conductor and biotechnology, the biochip technology which had already shown strong signs of viability in the early 1990s, is a revolutionary technology in life science, and also a key theme that all countries are keen on studying. Compared with the passive form of biochips relatively popular in foreign lands, the active form of biochips has taken on the feature of high sensitivity, which shortens the time for sample analysis. This is beyond doubt an irresistible general trend. Up to now, only few of active form of biochips have come to light in the world.

By adopting the new technology the Chinese scientists have succeeded in producing electromagnetic biochips of our own intellectual property rights in less than one year.

This innovative chip can effectively combine the actions of electric and magnetic field into one to produce biochemical reaction on any point of computer-controlled chip. It has pushed the international study on nucleic acid by using biochips for conducting hybrid analysis onto a new stage, and has also helped China to gain part of its own intellectual property rights in biochip study and industrialization, thereby laying a solid foundation for the industry development.

Seen distributed on a square-cm. silicon chip in a lab of Qinghua University is a great number of radiating silvery circuits with all of them pointing towards the center, where lies the real biochip. It is hardly imaginable that these chips may be installed on some apparatuses of examination, or into the computers, and in a few minutes time, it can conduct diagnosis on a human body.

The study of Chinese scientists has roused great interest in the country and throughout the world. By resorting to domestic and foreign venture investment, scientists have used the biochips to set up a company to produce products for diagnostic purposes and ultrahigh sorting of medicines.

(People's Daily 10/11/2000)