Technology in recent decades has greatly influenced our understanding of biological entities, and the genome project is a prime example of this. The progress observed in biology goes hand in hand with the development of new technologies. It is very important to understand and visualize the composition and structures of biological materials or samples to extend and relate them to the principles of life. Microscopy is by far the most used and most relevant technique in this regard. However, the shortcomings in the technological aspect greatly limit the use of this to understand the details. Through the advancement of analytical techniques we can move to a regime in which details play an important role in understanding life sciences, for example in the field analysis of metabolomics. It involves the determination of a small set of molecules known as metabolites with molecular weights typically in the range of less than 2500 Da in organisms or cells. Unlike genomics which involves combinations of genes or protein alphabets, it is structurally much more diverse. Furthermore, it is necessary that they be determined at native concentrations since there are no general amplification protocols for the metabolites yet. Furthermore, there is currently no method that provides this branch with the productivity and sensitivity of genomics. Even when the problem moves specifically into the single cell regime it becomes more intriguing and complex. This brings additional challenges in the field of sample preparation in order to make the technology suitable for use in life sciences. The need for high sensitivity becomes more pressing as even the most abundant metabolites in cells are in the millimolar to micromolar range. Fur... middle of paper... transition from large-scale analysis to the microliter regime, which as discussed above has undoubted advantages for analytical techniques. Control over surface properties will make it even more desirable for bioanalytical applications. Devices fabricated by the above-mentioned methods will provide a means of analyzing relatively small quantities in dramatically reduced analysis times and also possibly reduced analysis costs. There is also a greater likelihood of making such devices commercially viable due to the ability to use microfabrication for large-scale production and still retain the advantages obtained in the prototype and also maintain repeatability of the entire process. The main advantage would be the ability to control process parameters in manufacturing which would help achieve the same result with each run of the manufacturing protocol.