顯微流是將液相生化反應(yīng)縮小至非常小的量，這樣大系列的化學(xué)反應(yīng)可以在相同的微點陣狀態(tài)下進(jìn)行。發(fā)展顯微流系統(tǒng)的關(guān)鍵是能夠維持點陣中每個元素所需的溶液的足夠的量，并按時空要求準(zhǔn)確地送到每個點。其它還包括降低生化反應(yīng)中出現(xiàn)的問題如速度和加熱的彌散。有幾家公司生產(chǎn)能夠進(jìn)行生物分子篩選、合成和探測所需的大規(guī)模化學(xué)反應(yīng)的顯微射流技術(shù)設(shè)備。因為大量化學(xué)反應(yīng)被支持著，點陣可以設(shè)計成具備多種功能。顯微射流技術(shù)應(yīng)用的例子包括生物靶子的篩選、組合文庫的形成、DNA寡聚體的合成，蛋白質(zhì)多態(tài)性研究所有這些都因為顯微射流技術(shù)而可以大規(guī)模進(jìn)行。

Microfluidics is the minitiarization of fluid-based biochemistry to very small volumes such that a large series of chemical reactions can be performed in parallel in a microarray format (see Microarray). The essential issue with developing microfluidics-based devices is the ability to maintain adequate access to the solutions needed in each element of the array, delivered both spatially (to each addressable location in the array) and temporally (at the appropriate time in the reaction). Other issues include scaling-down problems that occur with biochemical reactions, such as diffusion rates and heating. Several companies have now manufactured microfluidics devices (“labs-on-a-chip”) that allow the high-throughput chemistries needed in screening, synthesis and probing of biological molecules. Because a large number of chemistries are supported, the arrays are customizable (“programmable”) to perform a variety of functions. Examples of microfluidics-based applications include screening of biological targets, synthesis of combinatorial libraries, synthesis of DNA oligomers, and analysis of polymorphic proteins, all of which can be performed in large high-throughput parallel arrays because of microfluidics.