Hydrogel Modules for Sensitive Bioassays

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.  We will discuss newmicrofabrication techniques for synthesizing encoded particles and microfluidic devices which make use of hydrogel materials for bioassays. We will highlight our recent work on microRNAs which have emerged as potential biomarkers for several diseases including cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, due to their unique dysregulation patterns under disease conditions. We will also discuss methods to encode and decode particles via shape.