Digitized molecular detection on off-the-shelf Blu-ray discs: Upgraded resolution and enhanced sensitivity

[Display omitted] •Digitized molecular detection system is developed based on Blu-ray technology.•Off-the-shelf Blu-ray discs are adopted for the preparation of molecular binding assays.•Bioassay Blu-ray discs can be read with a standard computer drive in conjunction with a free disc-quality check software program.•Blu-ray molecular detection platform shows superior assay performance than previously developed DVD/CD systems. Beyond the intrinsic capability of storing and archiving high-definition movies and games, off-the-shelf Blu-ray discs have been adopted for the preparation of molecular binding assays, which are subsequently read and quantitated with a standard computer drive in conjunction with the disc-quality check program. The performance of this digitized molecular detection system has been examined first with an artificial “ink assay” (an array of microsize ink dots) to define the quantitation capability and the lateral resolution. The conventional biotin-streptavidin binding assay was then tested with the Blu-ray detection platform, and compared with the resultsobtained on a DVD. The upgraded lateral resolution (