Biochip island.(an international electronics and biology biochip building effort is being conducted by a laboratory called Technobiochip on the island of Elba)(Science and Technology)(Brief Article)

A MYSTERIOUS research laboratory perched on the lush green hillside of a remote Mediterranean island; a group of scientists, several of them Russian, working feverishly to bride the gap between electronics and biology by building biochips. It may have the look of a James Bond film, but it is a serious endeavour. It could turn the tiny island of Elba, previously famous only for Napoleon's brief exile, into a hotbed of bio-electronics.

The laboratory, extravagantly named Technobiochip, is the brainchild of Claudio Nicolini, a biophysicist at the University of Genoa. In 1989 Dr Nicolini convinced five companies to invest together in a laboratory that would do research in the fledgling field of bio-electronics. Carefully, he chose firms that were not direct competitors, such as SGS Thomson, a microelectronics company and Raggio Italgene, an Italian biotechnology company.

Dr Nicolini, who happened also to be campaigning for a senatorship in the region at the time, took advantage of a political loophole which placed the island in southern Italy for investment purposes, even though it is a good deal north of Rome. This enabled him to obtain generous government funds to match those from industry. Such largesse has given Technobiochip a budget of about 10 billion lire ($6m) a year for some 20 researchers since it opened on 1991. The result is an extremely well-equipped laboratory that would be the envy of any Italian university. Scientists initially reluctant to be exiled on Elba are now eager to stay, partly due to the excellent research conditions, partly because of the idyllic site.

But Technobiochip is not just pretty pork. Although much of the research carried out there is very long-term stuff, the industrial involvement puts pressure on the researchers to develop devices that are useful here and now. One example is a biosensor that can detect the minute amounts of recombinant DNA which are used to make drugs. Though not terribly glamorous, such applications have commercial value. Perhaps the best sign of Technobiochip's success is that, when government support petered out this spring due to Italy's budget problems, industry kept on funding the laboratory.

The original venture has now split into two. Technobiochip Manufacturing will further develop the most marketable ideas. To complement Technobiochip's activities, the "National Bioelectronics Pole" has been opened just up the street in the otherwise sleepy town of Marciana. Among its research preoccupations are neural networks: silicon structures which are built to learn, and which are another facet of the marriage between electronics and biology.

There are plans to convert a 14th-century fortress into the Elba Foundation, dedicated to more fundamental research in bio- electronics and supported by the Italian and Russian governments as well as several American foundations. The Russian connection has already proved fruitful for Technobiochip, supplying the lab with well-trained scientists, hired on short-term consultancies to keep overheads to a minimum. Together, the various institutes will form the Elba Science and Technology Park, one of 13 such parks being built throughout Italy.

The splendid isolation Technobiochip and its siblings share is in some ways a disadvantage. The nearest major library is several hours away by car and ferry and equipment delivery times are long. Until an optical-fibre connection is made with the island, even surfing the Internet is slow. But on the whole the researchers are delighted to be left to their own devices, with generous equipment budgets and far from meddling middle managers. They are visited just once a month by mainland professors who keep track of their progress. If that proves too intrusive for some, there is always Saint Helena.