Micromachining microcarrier-based biomolecular encoding for miniaturized and multiplexed immunoassay

Micromachining techniques, which originated in the microelectronics industry, have been employed to manufacture microparticles bearing an engraved dot-type signature for biomolecular encoding. These metallic microstructures are photolithographically defined and manufactured in a highly reproducible manner. In addition, the code introduced on the particle face is a straightforward visible feature that is easily recognizable with the use of optical microscopy. The number of distinct codes theoretically could be many thousands, depending on the coding element numbers. Such microparticles are, thus, with appropriate surface organic functionalizations, ideal for encoding biomolecular libraries and serving as a platform for developing high-throughput multiplexed bioassay schemes based on suspension array technology. As proof of this statement, we demonstrated that encoded microparticles tagged with antibodies to human immunoglobulin classes are capable, using imaging detection as the interrogating approach, of high sensitivity and high specificity, as well as multiplexed detection of the respective antigens in a microliter-sample volume.