ABSTRACT

Substrates and Cells “Traditional” materials used in microelectronics fabrication-namely, silicon, metals, photoresist, and others-are not interesting for the study of biomolecules (proteins, DNA, etc.) and cells. Because many e„orts in BioMEMS have been focused on micropatterning materials such as proteins, cells, and biomedically interesting polymers, there is a wide array of “biopatterning” techniques now available. Here, we only discuss techniques that involve some type of miniaturization, which necessarily excludes the potentially powerful use of focused lasers. Indeed, lasers have been used to “pick and drop” single cells (“laser traps”), or to laserablate tiny portions of cell culture substrates (with the cells on them) so as to “shoot” them against a “receiver” substrate; however, these techniques have had little success in the applications covered here, likely because of their serial nature and concerns over the deleterious e„ect of intense radiation on cell physiology.