CRISPR-Based Nucleic Acid Test Debuts

SHERLOCK combines CRISPR-Cas13a with isothermal RNA amplification to detect RNA and DNA with single-base specificity.

Written byDiana Kwon

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A CRISPR-based diagnostic tool can detect pathogens, identify cancerous mutations, and genotype human DNA, researchers reported today (April 13) in Science.

“This project is the culmination of a lot of work we’ve been doing in the lab,” study coauthor Omar Abudayyeh, a MD/PhD student at Harvard Medical School and a member of Feng Zhang’s lab at the Broad Institute, told The Scientist. “We’ve been interested in mining bacterial diversity in nature, to try to uncover new tools and proteins that can be used to better public health and society.”

A few years ago, while searching through bacterial genomes for new CRISPR enzymes, Abudayyeh and colleagues discovered C2c2 (now known as Cas13a). The enzyme has unique properties—not only does it target RNA instead of DNA, is ...

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Meet the Author

Diana Kwon
Diana is a freelance science journalist who covers the life sciences, health, and academic life. She’s a regular contributor to The Scientist and her work has appeared in several other publications, including Scientific American, Knowable, and Quanta. Diana was a former intern at The Scientist and she holds a master’s degree in neuroscience from McGill University. She’s currently based in Berlin, Germany.
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