Pharmacom's technology platform is based on "4S" architecture and composed with a variety of proprietary technologies. It is emerged and developed because of challenges from the real world of biodetection.

Live beings to sensors

Sensors are devices that respond to biological, chemical and physical stimuli, resulting in the production of a small signal that is proportional to the stimuli observed. To maximize the speed and sensitivity of the observation and to minimize the size, cost and power consumption, will increasingly involve the use of advanced microelectronics and microengineering technologies.

Advanced chemical and bio-particle analysis requires complex microanalysis systems known as 'lab-on-a-chip' technology. These systems will involve advanced microengineering, including microfluidics, electrokinetic manipulation and biosensor techniques.

Environmental monitoring requires rugged sensors to measure the biological, chemical and physical properties of atmosphere, landmass and oceans, including the detection of pollution and toxic chemicals. Automated and continuous, remote and in situ monitoring will be increasingly required using an extensive range of sensing techniques.

Biomedical applications requires sensors, involving protein chip technology, to identify and measure the levels of proteins in cells or tissue. Biosensors will be used to follow small molecules to provide early diagnosis of disease and to maximize the benefits of treatment in healthcare. In vivo measurements will use microsensor technology and future imaging methods will use a number of advanced techniques simultaneously.

Particle physics and astronomy applications involves massive arrays of sensors designed to detect charged particles and electromagnetic radiation over a wide spectral range from sub-millimetre to X-ray wavelengths. Increasingly these technologies have been applied to applications throughout science and engineering research.

Data to Information

Processing the data from arrays of sensors requires access to faster, cheaper and more flexible 'real-time' data processing, combined with the best available data transmission and storage systems. In many cases there has a requirement to integrate and synchronise data from a large number of sources. An advanced instrument should include intelligent control systems that adapt the behaviour of the instrument in response to sensed data.

Future research, using the best available instrumentation, will have a requirement to collect and process massive quantities of data and store the results of that processing as information. This will require the development of novel distributed computing techniques, known as data and computing grids. The basic understanding of how to implement these grids is now available, but it will require strategic planning and investment to ensure that the whole of the research community benefits from this initiative.

Information to Knowledge

The massive quantities of information that will be generated will require a further stage of processing to transform this information into knowledge. This will require information technology systems and strategies to handle information, knowledge (an information and a knowledge grid) and translations between the two. The future approach should include the structuring and classification of information, ensuring that the information can be viewed in a meaningful context, and using logical inference to extract conclusions and recommendations.

A revolution is occurring here which will profoundly affect the design and development of our future systems. In the past a scientific instrument was normally used for a specific function. Now we see that the next generation of innovative instruments will involve improvements to existing systems to increase the quality and quantity of measurements by many orders of magnitude. In addition the introduction of micro and nano technology into our microprofiling systems will facilitate entirely new applications of 'in situ' and 'in vivo' measurement.