Microparticles incorporating micrometer-sized diffractive bar codes have been modified with oligonucleotides and immunoglobulin Gs to enable DNA hybridization and immunoassays. The bar codes are manufactured using photolithography of a chemically functional commercial epoxy photoresist (SU-8). When attached by suitable linkers, immobilized probe molecules exhibit high affinity for analytes and fast reaction kinetics, allowing detection of single nucleotide differences in DNA sequences and multiplexed immunoassays in <45 min. Analysis of raw data from assays carried out on the diffractive microparticles indicates that the reproducibility and sensitivity approach those of commercial encoding platforms. Micrometer-sized particles, imprinted with several superimposed diffraction gratings, can encode many million unique codes. The high encoding capacity of this technology along with the applicability of the manufactured bar codes to multiplexed assays will allow accurate measurement of a wide variety of molecular interactions, leading to new opportunities in diverse areas of biotechnology such as genomics, proteomics, high-throughput screening, and medical diagnostics.

We describe a new non-contact high capacity optical tagging technique based on the use of nanostructured barcodes. The tags are generated from a number of superimposed diffraction gratings. With one-dimensional diffraction, capacity for up to 68,000 distinguishable tags has been demonstrated, with a theoretical capacity of up to 10 9 tags. Extension into two dimensions increases this theoretical limit to 10 21 tags.

A nano-imprint lithography technique is described for fabrication of optically encoded microparticles (diffractive barcodes). The particles are fabricated from SU8 -a material which can be processed lithographically, and which can be used for attachment of molecular tags. The barcodes are identified by their unique diffraction patterns.

Fluorescence and phosphorescence emission spectroscopy were employed to study the interaction of Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) with its specific inhibitor, formycin A (FA), a close structural analogue of adenosine (natural substrate), in the absence and presence of phosphate (P(i), substrate). Formation of enzyme-FA complexes led to marked quenching of enzyme tyrosine intrinsic fluorescence and phosphorescence, with concomitant increases in fluorescence and phosphorescence of FA. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer from the protein Tyr160 residue to the FA base moiety was identified as a major mechanism of protein fluorescence quenching, increased by addition of P(i). The effects of enzyme-FA interactions on the nucleoside excitation and emission spectra for fluorescence and phosphorescence revealed shifts in the tautomeric equilibrium of the bound FA, i.e. from the N(1)-H tautomer (predominant in solution) to the N(2)-H form, enhanced by the presence of P(i). The latter was confirmed by enzyme-ligand dissociation constant ( K(d)) values of 5.9+/-0.4 and 2.1+/-0.3 microM in the absence and presence of P(i), respectively. Addition of glycerol (80%, v/v) led to a lower enzyme affinity ( K(d) approximately 70 microM), without changes in binding stoichiometry. Enzyme-FA complex formation led to a higher increase of the fluorescence than the phosphorescence band of the ligand, consistent with the fact that the N(2)-H tautomer is characterized by a weaker phosphorescence than the N(1)-H tautomeric form. These results show, for the first time, the application of phosphorescence spectroscopy to the identification of the tautomeric form of the inhibitor bound by the enzyme.