The presented paper analyzes the potential of chip calorimetry for biochemical and cell biological investigations. From the thereto-physical properties of the heat power detectors of a chip calorimeter can be deduced that relevant applications mainly refer to fast reactions in extremely small samples. In contrast, the use of chip calorimeters for studying slow processes such as biochemical or microbial reactions is restricted. However, careful optimization of chip calorimeters concerning signal resolution and sample volume enables the investigation of enzymatically catalyzed reactions and the measurement of microbial growth heat as subsequently demonstrated with some typical examples from the literature. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.