title: Digitized molecular diagnostics: reading disk-based bioassays with standard computer drives.
abstract: We report herein a digital signal readout protocol for screening disk-based bioassays with standard optical drives of ordinary desktop/notebook computers. Three different types of biochemical recognition reactions (biotin-streptavidin binding, DNA hybridization, and protein-protein interaction) were performed directly on a compact disk in a line array format with the help of microfluidic channel plates. Being well-correlated with the optical darkness of the binding sites (after signal enhancement by gold nanoparticle-promoted autometallography), the reading error levels of prerecorded audio files can serve as a quantitative measure of biochemical interaction. This novel readout protocol is about 1 order of magnitude more sensitive than fluorescence labeling/scanning and has the capability of examining multiplex microassays on the same disk. Because no modification to either hardware or software is needed, it promises a platform technology for rapid, low-cost, and high-throughput point-of-care biomedical diagnostics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
authors.forename: Yunchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lily M L
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Hua-Zhong
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D003201:Computers / Q000592:standards*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D015336:Molecular Probe Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D004247:DNA