Biochip bracelets be damned -- nanoengineers at UC San Diego want to put sensors in your skivvies.

ENGADGET: Scientists create sweat-monitoring underwear, break them in (video)

But the next step, according to Dr Meterissian, is to use biochip microarrays that are capable of recognising hundreds of genes.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app

Similarly, the National Engineering Research Centre for Beijing Biochip Technology is headed by Cheng Jing, an engineer and molecular biologist trained in Britain and America.

ECONOMIST: Chinese biotechnology

Five years from now, he suggests, biochip analysis might be used routinely to choose the right treatment for a particular patient, to forecast how effective that treatment will be, and even to estimate the long-term prognosis.

ECONOMIST: An un-killer app

He now has two diagnostic chips, for infectious disease and tissue transplantation, in trials at Beijing hospitals, and is spearheading a drive to link most of China's biochip expertise under one roof in a Beijing science park next year.

ECONOMIST: Chinese biotechnology