Photoactivatable polymers for producing patterned biomolecular assemblies

A process for forming a biochip, said process comprising the steps of:

• (1)providing a substrate having surface hydroxyls or capable of being modified to contain surface hydroxyl groups;
• (2)modifying said substrate, if necessary, to contain surface hydroxyl groups;
• (3)reacting said surface hydroxyls with a silane to bind a molecular layer of vinyl groups upon said substrate;
• (4)placing upon said molecular layer a solution of an acrylamide compound, a bis-vinyl compound and a photoactivatable compound, each of said compounds containing one or more vinyl groups which can participate in a free radical polymerization reaction to form a polymerized network layer bound to said molecular layer formed in step (3);
• (5)photoactivating said polymerized network layer to form a patterned photoactivated polymerized network layer;
• and
• (6)placing upon said photoactivated polymerized network layer, one or more biomolecules to bind said biomolecules to said patterned photoactivated polymerized network layer wherein said biomolecules may be the same or different.