Software-based quantitation of bioassays on CD

Compact discs (CDs) can be used as rapid, low-cost, high-capacity screening platforms for running bioassays with no modification of the detection hardware (conventional standard optical drive). We describe herein a new protocol to read and quantitate biotin–streptavidin binding assays with a standard optical drive by using a CD-data analysis software (IsoBuster), which identifies erroneous sectors by locating the exact error position bit-by-bit and allows various data formats to be used. The numbers of erroneous sectors increase as a function of the streptavidin concentration in the tested solutions. High spatial accuracy and detection sensitivity (0.3 μg/mL) were achieved.