Automated synthesis and sequence analysis of biological macromolecules.

The traditional distinctions between the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology have blurred with time. As the important questions in biological research have become increasingly detailed and molecular in nature, the techniques needed to answer these questions have drawn increasingly on principles and methods usually ascribed to the fields of physics and chemistry. This fusion has resulted in the instruments and chemistries that constitute the technological foundations of modern biology and that are critical components in the new methods responsible for the explosive growth of modern biology during the last decade. Many of these instruments, such as microscopes, and spectrophotometers, have existed for decades; however, technological advances such as the user of imaging methods in NMR have greatly expanded their power and versatility. In the past several years, a new generation of instruments, whose everyday use has had revolutionary consequences, has come into existence. Central among these are the instruments concerned with the synthesis and sequence analysis of the two major biopolymers, protein and DNA. This article contains descriptions of these instruments, the chemistries on which they are based, and some of their manifold applications.