The trend to miniaturized sample analysis has been developing
slowly for the past 20 years or so. Lab on a chip has been the
Holy Grail for Life Sciences for many years and is just now
reaching its stride as a major tool for improving sample
throughput and achieving the acceleration of research results in
genetic testing, drug testing, diagnostics etc. Originally
sample miniaturization was due to either lack of sample quantity
(samples from babies, forensics) but today the need is evolving
more towards samples containing more information (genetics,
proteomics). Many detectors (such as Mass Spectrometry) work
better with small sample amounts and in the past this has been a
challenge to sufficiently and predictable split the sample so as
not to overwhelm the detector. Today, state of the art sample
miniaturization can result in picoliter-volume droplets produced
at a rate of millions per hour. Each droplet becomes the
functional equivalent of an individual test tube containing a
single molecule, reaction, or ce