Issue 22, 2012

Programmable microfluidic synthesis of spectrally encoded microspheres

Abstract

Spectrally encoded fluorescent beads are an attractive platform for assay miniaturization and multiplexing in the biological sciences. Here, we synthesize hydrophilic PEG–acrylate polymer beads encoded with lanthanide nanophosphors using a fully automated microfluidic synthesis device. These beads are encoded by including varying amounts of two lanthanide nanophosphors relative to a third reference nanophosphor to generate 24 distinct ratios. These codes differ by less than 3% from their target values and can be distinguished from each other with an error rate of <0.1%. The encoded bead synthesis strategy we have used is readily extensible to larger numbers of codes, potentially up to millions, providing a new platform technology for assay multiplexing.

Graphical abstract: Programmable microfluidic synthesis of spectrally encoded microspheres

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Jun 2012
Accepted
21 Sep 2012
First published
25 Sep 2012
This article is Open Access

Lab Chip, 2012,12, 4716-4723

Programmable microfluidic synthesis of spectrally encoded microspheres

R. E. Gerver, R. Gómez-Sjöberg, B. C. Baxter, K. S. Thorn, P. M. Fordyce, C. A. Diaz-Botia, B. A. Helms and J. L. DeRisi, Lab Chip, 2012, 12, 4716 DOI: 10.1039/C2LC40699C

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