Multifunctional polymeric microparticles have shown the great potentials in a variety of fields. While the advance in particle synthesis allows for fine tuning of their physical properties and chemical functionality, particle manipulation is still appealing, but challenging issue in colloidal science. In order to expand the utility of microparticles, many particle manipulation techniques have been developed to arrange large-scale of particles at precise locations. However, current approaches cannot simultaneously fulfill desired capabilities of arrangement: scalability, precision, specificity, and versatility. This thesis explores the ability to synthesize particles with a controllability of characteristics, and development of a new microfluidic platform, porous microwell arrays, to create structured large-scale microparticic arrays using a scaling theory, which is a function of particles' characteristics. Lastly, we demonstrate the potential of generated particle arrays in various bioengineering application and material sciences.

First, we synthesize anisotropic, cell-adhesive microparticles using stop flow lithography (SFL) and carbodimide coupling. Synthesized microparticles are functionalized with collagen or poly-Llysine using streptavidin-biotin interaction, resulting in cell-adhesiveness. After functionalization, target cells are spread on the particles and spatially patterned only on the functionalized region. Thus, cells are not exposed to potentially harmful components of particle synthesis processes, photoinitiators and ultraviolet light, ensuring no physiological changes.

Second, we synthesize multi-striped, upconverting nanocrystal (UCN)-laden microparticles using SFL. Distinct upconversion emission colors are combined with the ability to spatial pattern them, providing superior encoding capacities. We can fine-tune upconversion emission by controlling the dopant composition in nanocrystal, and synthesize microparticles in a highly reproducible manner by SFL, allowing for the development of predictable decoding system. Two types of particles are synthesized with this appealing encoding strategy for two distinct applications: thermally stable particles for anti-counterfeiting application; and porous hydrogels for multiplexed microRNA detection. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - docs mit.edu).