I. Biochip
The sequence and position of each molecule in the array are known, forming a pre-defined sequence lattice. Microfluidic chips and liquid-phase biochips are novel biochip technologies developed after microarray chips. Biochip technology is a fundamental aspect of systems biotechnology.
Biochips are based on the principle of specific interactions between biomolecules, integrating biochemical analysis processes onto the chip surface to achieve high-throughput, rapid detection of biological components such as DNA, RNA, peptides, and proteins. In a narrow sense, a biochip refers to a biomolecular lattice formed by immobilizing biomolecules on solid-phase emitters such as silicon wafers, glass slides, plastic sheets, gels, and nylon membranes using various methods. Therefore, biochip technology is also called microdisplay technology, and the solid-phase substrate containing a large amount of biological information is called a microarray, also known as a biochip. Based on these types of chips, microfluidic chips, also known as microelectronic chips or miniaturized laboratory chips, have been developed.
So, let's look at what a biochip is. Simply put, a biochip involves placing a biological sample on a material such as glass, silicon, or nylon membrane, then using instruments to collect signals and computers to analyze the data. People easily associate biochips with electronic chips. Indeed, they do share a fundamental similarity: a vast amount of data contained within a tiny size. However, they are completely different things. Electronic chips contain semiconductor electronic units, while biochips contain biological probe molecules.
The concept of a chip originates from the concept of integration. For example, an electronic chip means breaking down large things into smaller ones and integrating them together. A biochip is also an integration, but it's an integration of biological materials. Like laboratory testing, detecting blood glucose, proteins, enzyme activity, etc., on a biochip is based on the same biological reaction principles. Therefore, a biochip is a carrier platform. This platform uses many materials, such as silicon, glass, membranes, and polymers with three-dimensional structures. Various biological materials are densely packed onto the platform. The chip is merely a carrier. What is done and what is tested is still done by biologists. In other words, reactions that previously required numerous test tubes in very large laboratories are now transferred to chips and occur simultaneously.
II. Current Status of Biochip Development
Next, let's take a look at the current state of development of biochips.
China's biochip industry chain is divided into upstream raw material industry, midstream manufacturing industry, and downstream application market. Upstream raw materials include chip substrates, sample preparation, and probe preparation; midstream manufacturing mainly produces gene chip diagnostic kits and gene chip-related instruments, accounting for 86% and 14% of the market respectively; the downstream application market mainly consists of medical institutions, households, and third-party diagnostic outsourcing agencies. my country's biochip industry is still largely confined to research fields such as bioinformatics, and its application in molecular diagnostics is not yet widespread. While China's biochip market has huge potential, it only accounts for 5% of the global market. China's biochip industry is still in its early stages. Most biochip companies focus on applications, including in vitro diagnostics, CTC cell capture, cell counting, and blood glucose monitoring, with in vitro diagnostic companies being the most numerous, accounting for more than three-quarters. China's biochip industry has few upstream companies, insufficient R&D efforts, low R&D levels, weak technology, and a lack of first-mover advantage. Chinese biochip companies are mainly medium-sized enterprises (registered scale of 10 million to 1 billion yuan), accounting for more than 58%. However, companies with a registered scale exceeding 1 billion yuan account for only 22%, and leading enterprises account for only 22%, indicating that the industry structure needs optimization.
