Whereas computer chips process digital information, biochips process biological information. For example, researchers and physicians often care about the presence or absence of molecules which could be indicative of disease or of other health conditions. Because biochips allow processing many molecules in parallel, they underpin a rapidly growing number of technical and medical applications. As the number and type of applications grow, so do the expectations and demands on the performance of biochips. How can we further increase throughput, i.e., how can we detect more molecules in parallel and per unit time? How can we improve specificity and sensitivity? Can we even detect single molecules? How can we reduce reagent consumption (and thus cost)? How can we make biochip fabrication itself more efficient and less expensive?

At nanogami, we believe we have an answer to all these questions. We specialize in a fabrication technology called DNA origami, which enables us to build extremely miniaturized breadboards from DNA molecules. We use these breadboards to organize and arrange individual molecules in ways that facilitate their detection. Each molecule then becomes a sensor for a condition of interest. For example, antibodies can detect antigens, nucleic acids can detect other nucleic acids, and so on and so forth. In addition, we place nanoscale antennas or other features in the vicinity of the sensor molecules on the DNA origami breadboards to amplify the signal generated from each sensor. Our sensor breadboards are then placed and arranged in ultra-high density and user-defined patterns on solid surfaces to create the actual multiplexed biochip, which can be read-out via direct imaging or by other means. As a result, our biochips can detect and analyze biological molecules faster, more efficiently, and cheaper than ever before.

Rather than focussing on one specific biochip architecture, our vision is to enable and empower the entire life-science discovery and diagnostics industry, by providing an industry-spanning horizontal biochip framework that can be adapted and customized to target specifications, whether for genomics, transcriptomics, or proteomics - or everything at the same time, on one and the the same chip.