Question: To scale down biochemical reactions and provide capabilities for single-cell analysis, a German company named Advalytix (Munich) has developed an on-chip PCR platform involving a microscope slide containing 48 hydrophilic spots (although earlier versions had 60 spots). Each ‘ anchor ' spot on this AmpliGrid holds 1 μ L of solution containing the reaction components necessary for PCR. Because of the chemical nature of the hydrophilic spots, liquid is attracted to the defined positions and forms a small bead, which can then be covered with 5 μ L of mineral oil before thermal cycling is performed in order to prevent evaporation. The entire chip is then placed in a thermal ng steps. Full DNA profiles down to 32 pg of DNA template have been achieved with a commercial STR typing kit. Although it is challenging to pipet the small volumes necessary to perform this work, this technique is cost effective due to reduced reagent consumption.