Technology
Our technology was born in the laboratory of Prof. Patrick Doyle at MIT and utilizes barcoded gel microparticles that are rapidly custom-synthesized using a ground-breaking combination of microfluidics and photolithography. With this method, particles are "printed" on streams of photopolymerizable compounds, allowing graphical encoding and incorporation of biofunctional probes to occur in one step. This process combines the non-mixing and continuous nature of microfluidics with the precise sculpting of photolithography, transforming the synthesis of morphologically- and chemically-complex particles into a simple, rapid process.
Particles carrying the desired probes are mixed with the sample to be tested and read by scanning them through a microfluidic device. These microparticles allow high-throughput analysis, assay versatility and scalability. Most importantly, the hydrogel material of which they are made allows much more favorable hybridization thermodynamics than a solid substrate would, resulting in extremely high sensitivity and specificity.
Publications
- Dendukuri, D., Pregibon, D.C., Collins, J., Hatton, T.A. and Doyle, P.S. Continuous-flow lithography for high-throughput microparticle synthesis. Nature Materials 5, 369 (2006)
- Pregibon, D.C., Toner, M. and Doyle, P.S. Multifunctional Encoded Particles for High-Throughput Biomolecule Analysis. Science 315, 1393 (2007)
- Pregibon, D. and Doyle, P. Optimization of Encoded Hydrogel Particles for Nucleic Acid Quantification. Analytical Chemistry 81, 4873 (2009)
- Chapin, Pregibon, D. and Doyle, P. High-Throughput Flow Alignment of Barcoded Hydrogel Microparticles. Lab on a Chip 9, 3100 (2009)