Microarray technology: the future of blood testing?

The increasing pace of development in molecular biological techniques durin g the last 10-15 years has had a direct effect on mass testing and diagnost ic applications, including blood screening. Nucleic acid amplification tech niques (NAT), usually based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), have be en successfully applied to blood grouping and implemented recently in scree ning of blood donations for hepatitis C virus (HCV). The majority of microa rray technologies involve an amplification step, yet the main benefits of t his technology come from simultaneous analysis of thousands of analytes. Mi croarrays were developed to utilize the huge amount of information provided by genome projects, but they have clear potential in mass screening and di agnostics. The application of microarray technology may revolutionize blood testing, providing for the first time the prospect of an integrated platfo rm for comprehensive donor and donation testing, replacing multiple individ ual assays. Design features of a blood-testing chip and various technologie s with potential application in this field are discussed in this review.