Microfluidic bischemical analysis system

We have developed a genetic-analysis system that integrates all reactions necessary to process a sample and use a microfabricated GeneChip/sup (R)/ polynucleotide array. This system has performed a multistep assay for monitoring mutations in the HIV virus in 10 /spl mu/L reaction volumes. The microfluidic structures and thermal control methods demonstrated in this work can be generally applied to integrate other chemical and biochemical analysis systems.