An assay platform that is rapidly gaining prominence for a variety of applications from diagnosis and biodetection to combinatorial chemistry and drug discovery, are encoded microparticles. Such encoded particles address some of the limitations posed by conventional substrates. In this context, we present the use of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy, as codifying alternatives. SERS offers unique advantages such as: a) ultrasensitive detection, down to the single molecule level,[2] that decrease dramatically the deconvolution times, allowing for real-time applications such as high-throughput screening in flow-citometry or microfluidic systems; b) an unlimited number of barcodes since SERS spectra are essentially vibrational fingerprints, unique for each molecule, with the possibility of expanding the codified library to the infinite by combining different tags with similar SERS cross-sections;[3] and, c) the use of the same hybrid systems as optical enhancing platforms for fluorescence in sandwich key-and-lock applications such as ELISA-like microarrays, with the subsequent decrease in the detection limits of pathogens or pathogen markers.[4]

[1] Fenniri, H.; Alvarez-Puebla, R.A. Nat. Chem Biol. 2007, 3, 247-249

[2] (A) Kneipp, K.; Wang, Y.; Kneip, H.; Perelman, L. T.; Itzkan, I.; Dasari, R. R.; Feld, M., Phys. Rev. Lett. 1997, 78, 1667-1670; (B) Nie, S.; Emory, S. R., Science 1997, 275, 1102-1106.

[3] Fenniri, H.; Chun, S.; Ding, L. H.; Zyrianov, Y.; Hallenga, K. J. Am.Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 10546-10560.

[4] (A) Raez, J.; Blais, D.; Zhang, Y.; Alvarez-Puebla, R.A.; Bravo-Vasquez, J.P.; Pezacki, J.P.; Fenniri, H.
Langmuir 2007, 23, 6482-6485. (B) Bravo-Vasquez, J.P.; Alvarez-Puebla, R.; Fenniri, H. Sensor Act. B 2007, 125,  357-359

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