Figure 5.

Schematic of spherical particle-templated assays. (a) Particle fabrication methods using microfluidic devices for creating spherical hydrogel microparticles. Commonly used designs include flow focusing and step emulsification devices. Brightfield image of example microparticles produced. (b) Analytes used in particle-templated assays including nucleic acids, proteins, and single cells. (c) Methods for creating particle-templated emulsions using readily available lab instruments, which include vortexing and pipetting, resulting in uniform emulsification. Brightfield image with fluorescent overlay of an example particle-templated emulsion. Scale bars are 100 μm.