This invention relates in general to a method for molecular
fingerprinting. The method can be used for forensic identification (e.g.
DNA fingerprinting, especially by VNTR), bacterial typing, and
human/animal pathogen diagnosis. More particularly, molecules such as
polynucleotides (e.g. DNA) can be assessed or sorted by size in a
microfabricated device that analyzes the polynucleotides according to
restriction fragment length polymorphism. In a microfabricated device
according to the invention, DNA fragments or other molecules can be
rapidly and accurately typed using relatively small samples, by measuring
for example the signal of an optically-detectable (e.g., fluorescent)
reporter associated with the polynucleotide fragments.