Morris, Maldarelli,
Gilchrist, and Couzis are developing an ultra-miniaturized
microarray platform for the display of cell surface
membrane receptors, which are sequestered in a supported
unilamellar phospholipid bilayer that surrounds a 1
μmdiameter microbead, thereby generating a
lipobead. The lipobeads are optically bar coded
for identification by embedding QDs with different
diameters and emission wavelengths (colors) in varying
numbers (hundreds to tens of thousands) to form a
fluorescent label consisting colors, and, for each color, a
set of intensities.
SESMI students will
prepare polystyrene microbeads embedded with QDs using
miniemulsion polymerization, and they will characterize
bead size and spatial distribution using light scattering
and confocal microscopy, respectively.
