Patent ID: 7659983

Claim:
A method of identifying an analyte, the method comprising: providing a plurality of microparticles, the microparticles having elongated bodies with optically detectable codes extending along the bodies of the corresponding microparticle, the microparticles having chemical probes attached thereto, each of the chemical probes being associated with a corresponding one of the codes; exposing the microparticles to a target analyte that selectively binds to a chemical probe on at least one of the microparticles, wherein an optically detectable label on the at least one microparticle indicates that the target analyte binds to the chemical probe; providing the microparticles in a random manner on a substrate; determining the codes for the microparticles provided on the substrate and code positions of the codes on the substrate; detecting the label on the at least one microparticle and a label position of the label on the substrate; and using the code positions and the label positions to analyze the target analyte.