Magnetic barcoded hydrogel microparticles for multiplexed detection.

Magnetic polymer particles have been used in a wide variety of applications ranging from targeting and separation to diagnostics and imaging. Current synthesis methods have limited these particles to spherical or deformations of spherical morphologies. In this paper, we report the use of stop flow lithography to produce magnetic hydrogel microparticles with a graphical code region, a probe region, and a magnetic tail region. These anisotropic multifunctional magnetic polymer particles are an enhanced version of previously synthesized "barcoded" particles (Science, 2007, 315, 1393-1396) developed for the sensitive and rapid multiplexed sensing of nucleic acids. The newly added magnetic region has acquired dipole moments in the presence of weak homogeneous magnetic fields, allowing the particles to align along the applied field direction. The novel magnetic properties have led to practical applications in the efficient orientation and separation of the barcoded microparticles during biological assays without disrupting detection capabilities.