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Colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles for multiplexed bioassays

Nature Materials volume 9, pages 745–749 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Encoded particles have a demonstrated value for multiplexed high-throughput bioassays such as drug discovery and clinical diagnostics1,2. In diverse samples, the ability to use a large number of distinct identification codes on assay particles is important to increase throughput3. Proper handling schemes are also needed to readout these codes on free-floating probe microparticles. Here we create vivid, free-floating structural coloured particles with multi-axis rotational control using a colour-tunable magnetic material and a new printing method4. Our colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles offer a coding capacity easily into the billions with distinct magnetic handling capabilities including active positioning for code readouts and active stirring for improved reaction kinetics in microscale environments5. A DNA hybridization assay is done using the colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles to demonstrate multiplexing capabilities.

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Figure 1: Single-material (M-Ink)-based colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles.
Figure 2: Magnetic multi-axis control of structural colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles for multistep biochemical assays.
Figure 3: Multiplexed DNA detection assay using colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. 2010-0017860 and 2009-0082694) and the System IC 2010 project of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. We thank A. J. Heinz, W. Park, N. Kim and S. E. Choi for the experimental advice. We gratefully acknowledge Y. Yin at the University of California, Riverside, for valuable input and discussions on particle synthesis.

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  1. Howon Lee and Junhoi Kim: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Seoul National University, San 56-1, Shillim 9-dong, Gwanak-ku, Seoul 151-744, South Korea

    Howon Lee, Junhoi Kim, Hyoki Kim, Jiyun Kim & Sunghoon Kwon

  2. Inter-university Semiconductor Research Center (ISRC), Seoul National University, San 56-1, Shillim 9-dong, Gwanak-ku, Seoul 151-744, South Korea

    Howon Lee, Junhoi Kim, Hyoki Kim, Jiyun Kim & Sunghoon Kwon

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  1. Howon Lee
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Contributions

S.K. proposed the concept of the work. H.L. and S.K. designed the experiment. J.K., H.K. and H.L. carried out the experiments and analysis. J.K. and J.K. carried out theoretical analysis.

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Correspondence to Sunghoon Kwon.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lee, H., Kim, J., Kim, H. et al. Colour-barcoded magnetic microparticles for multiplexed bioassays. Nature Mater 9, 745–749 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2815

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