Barcodes have been used to track many things, from airline luggage to parcels. Now they are being used to label and track samples in microfluidic, high-throughput systems.rnJong-Ryul Jeong's group at the University of Cambridge, UK, is working towards one of the big goals in biological science: a DNA sequencing technology that can sequence the human genome in one day. But to achieve this they need to create new microfluidic systems and realised they required a labelling technique to track samples through the small devices. Their solution was tiny magnetic barcodes that can be attached to the samples and tracked.rnThe magnetic barcodes consist of a small strip of plastic, smaller than the average human cell, onto which strips of cobalt are attached. The cobalt can be magnetised in two different directions, to give either a plus one or minus one signal, much like the black and white strips of a conventional barcode.
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