1999 DNA chips prove valuable for classifying and studying cancers. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and others at Stanford find that by examining gene-expression profiles, they can differentiate between two different subgroups of leukemia. Only one subtype offers a good chance of survival. These results suggest that gene-expression profiling with DNA chips may be useful for diagnosing, and perhaps treating, leukemia.

In other labs, DNA chips allow researchers to examine everything from which genes make strawberries ripen to which genes make the Ebola virus so deadly. In October, young scientists anxious to take advantage of DNA-chip technology pack a course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York in the hopes of learning how to build the robots they need to break into the chip biz. A handful pony up $30,000 so they can take the equipment home after class.