The Quest for Optical Multiplexing in Bio-discoveries

Optical multiplexing has significantly boosted our capacity to acquire and process information in the modern era. This review surveys new methods for coding optical information to move from the macroscopic to the nanoscale. We highlight that advances in new materials, fabrication methods, super-resolution imaging tools, and microfluidic devices are the enabling technologies for many recent breakthroughs in micro- and nanoscale biophotonics. Multidimensional optical coding has been developed to assign addressable molecular probes for multiplexed molecular and cellular sensing. While illustrating the principles of coding information in multiple dimensions, we discuss prospective opportunities in material design and technological advancement and identify the challenges for eventually integrating and translating these biophotonic tools into cellular insights.