Microparticle Encoding Technologies for High-Throughput Multiplexed Suspension Assays

Abstract

The requirement for the analysis of large numbers of biomolecules for drug discovery and clinical diagnosis has driven the development of low-cost, flexible and high throughput methods for simultaneous detection of multiple molecular targets in a single sample (multiplexed analysis). The technique that most likely satisfies these demands is the multiplexed suspension (bead—based) assay, which offers a number of advantages over alternative approaches such as ELISAs and microarrays. In a bead-based assay, different probe molecules are attached to different beads, which are then reacted in suspension with the target sample. After reaction the beads need to be identified to determine the attached probe molecule, and thus each bead must be labelled or encoded in some way with a unique identifier. Here, we discusses some state of the art encoding methods and provide examples of how encoded particle technologies are being developed for fast multiplexed assays in a microfluidic format.