Due to their hydrophilic, biocompatible, and highly tunable nature,
hydrogel materials have attracted strong interest in the recent years for
numerous biotechnological applications. In particular, their solution-like
environment and non-fouling nature in complex biological samples render
hydrogels as ideal substrates for biosensing applications. Hydrogel coatings,
and later, gel dot surface microarrays, were successfully used in sensitive
nucleic acid assays and immunoassays. More recently, new microfabrication
techniques for synthesizing encoded particles from hydrogel materials have
enabled the development of hydrogel-based suspension arrays. Lithography
processes and droplet-based microfluidic techniques enable generation of
libraries of particles with unique spectral or graphical codes, for multiplexed
sensing in biological samples. In this review, we discuss the key questions
arising when designing hydrogel particles dedicated to biosensing. How can the
hydrogel material be engineered in order to tune its properties and immobilize
bioprobes inside? What are the strategies to fabricate and encode gel particles,
and how can particles be processed and decoded after the assay? Finally, we
review the bioassays reported so far in the literature that have used hydrogel
particle arrays and give an outlook of further developments of the field.