Peer Reviewed: Barcoding the Microworld

Abstract

arcodes are a part of our everyday life. You see them in the grocery store, on letters from the post office, and on DVDs you check out from the video store. Fast, simple, and accurate, barcoding has become the most popular data-entry method to track the ever-exploding amount of information in the macroscopic world in the past 15 years. In the meantime, an increasing demand for tracking smaller items and for direct monitoring of individual chemical interactions has driven the exploration for novel methods of barcoding at much smaller scales (1-4). Successful demonstrations of micro-or nano-sized barcodes in molecular interaction studies (4, 5), combinatorial screening (6), and convert tracking (7 ) have opened up new opportunities for research. This article will introduce recent developments in the field of encoded micro-or nano-sized freestanding particles and various applications. Detailed discussions of other encoding methods, such as molecular tags (8, 9) and non-particle-based platforms (10,11), are beyond the scope of our discussion. Readers who are interested in gaining an in-depth understanding of the field are referred to more comprehensive review papers.A conventional macroscopic barcode is a series of vertical lines ("the bars") and spaces of different widths. Various combinations of bars and spaces represent different characters incorporated in the code. Theoretically, varying the widths, sequential order, and total number of bars and spaces in the barcode can generate an unlimited number of codes. To achieve similar coding capacity at the nanoscale, the right elements to make up the codes (i.e., the bars and spaces) must first be identified. Two criteria are often used in the search for proper elements with distinctive attributes: They must be mixable at

Polyester Dendrimers

“…Amidation of the focal point using aminohexyl-functionalized bis(pyridyl)amine ligand [129]. The process by which information from a source is converted into symbols to be communicated or information encoding is an important field owing to its potential applications [207][208][209]. While exploring chirality for the development of encodeable macromolecules, which can be read out by simple optical rotation measurements or by enantioselective bioresponse, Heise and coworkers reported the synthesis of encoded dendrimers with defined chiral composition via 'click' reactions of enantiopure building blocks [210].…”

Proteomic Studies in Rheumatology

“…Однако их специфичность и аффинность сильно зависят от природы белка: структуры, размера, наличия гидрофобных или гетерофильных боковых це-пей, посттрансляционных модификаций [16]. Главным элементом биочипов является совокупность микроячеек (планарные микрочипы) или суспензия кодируемых ми-кроносителей, содержащих молекулярные зонды (сус-пензионные микрочипы), специфичные к одной из мно-жества биологических молекул или их фрагментов (по-следовательностям ДНК, РНК, белкам) [16,[21][22][23][24]. В планарных биочипах процесс идентификации исследу-емых объектов основан на определенном пространствен-ном расположении зондов или использовании индивиду-альных меток.…”

Refractometry of melanocyte cell nuclei using optical scatter images recorded by digital Fourier microscopy

“…12,13 Currently, this is limited by the use of colloid dye-doped beads. 14,15 Optical scatter field recorded by DFM contains information about the object's size, shape, relative location, and refractive index. This information can be retrieved by fitting the measured optical scatter field ͑the distribution of light scattered by the object͒ to theoretical models.…”