My research is focused on the development of a microfabricated platform for parallel synthesis of oligonucleotide libraries. The platform is a microreactor array incorporated with on-chip heaters and sensors for temperature control, and a dense array of microvalves for flow manipulation. Each reactor is individual addressed by the valve array for the synthesis of a specified oligonucleotide sequence, and thus a large library of oligonucleotide sequences can be simultaneously produced on a microchip. Such oligonucleotide arrays have rapidly spreading applications in many fields such as genotyping, medical diagnosis, combinatorial chemistry, and drug screening.

     Conventional MEMS (microelectromechanic system) technology and solid-phase organic synthesis are combined as the tool to develop the integrated microdevice. Currently specific efforts are directed onto the construction of a robust and chemical-resistant microvalve array, which is the key component of the whole system. The strategy of miniaturization, active on-chip flow control, and parallel synthesis can drastically reduce the costs and labor, as well as the required time for the production of oligonucleotide libraries, which is a strong motivation for our research project.