Uniformly colorized beads for multiplex immunoassay

We introduced a fluidic droplet generation method for the generation of monodispersed polymer beads with structural color. Multicolorized polystyrene beads were derived by embedding pearl pigment. Methods for generating uniform color and controlling bead size and surface were developed to make the beads suitable for multiplex immunoassay. A multiplex assay of antigen-antibody interaction shows that the multicolored encoded bead is a stable and cost-effective microcarrier. Wide applications in genomic or proteomic studies, drug screening, clinical diagnostics, and combinatorial chemical fields are anticipated.