Construction of Multiplexed Assays on Single Anisotropic Particles Using Microfluidics

Considerable efforts have been made to develop microscale multiplexing strategies. However, challenges remain due to the difficulty in deploying functional objects and decoding high-density signals on anisotropic microcarriers. Here, we report a microfluidic method to fabricate architecture-marked anisotropic particles for performing designable multiplexed assays in a label-free manner. By controlling fluid assembly and rapid in-air cross-linking, the particles are endowed with multiple functional regions and a unique architecture identifier. The marked architecture enables an addressing mechanism that allows the profiling of embedded label-free objects by mapping a well-defined reference architecture onto the target particle. By loading analytes of interest, such as molecular probes or cells, we showed the potential of these structurally flexible particles for detecting microRNAs and studying cell interactions. The architecture-marked particles represent a new approach for single-entity assays and can be the basis for exploring more advanced microscale multiplexed applications.