Miniaturized thermocontrol devices enable analysis of biomolecular behavior on their timescales, second to millisecond.

Abstract

To establish general-purpose methods and tools for biological experiments on a short time scale is an essential requirement for future research in molecular biology because most of the functions of living organisms at the molecular level take place on a time scale from 1-second to millisecond. Thermal control with on-chip micro-thermodevices is one of the strongest and most useful ways to realize biological experiments at molecular level on these time scales. Novel biological phenomena revealed by the experiments using micro-thermodevices on a 1-second and millisecond time scale will be shown for the proof. Finally, the advantages and impact of this methodology in molecular biology will be discussed.