PCR, POC testing, CRISPR diagnostics, immunoassays. Many tests much confusion. Thankfully, Nature Biotechnology and the Financial Times bring some clarity on fast, portable tests to curb coronavirus pandemic.

We have already covered Sherlock, the CRISPR-based diagnostic platform currently under validation. Now we welcome DETECTR, the platform developed by Mammoth Biosciences, a company co-founded by CRISPR coinventor Jennifer Doudna. For the technical details, please see medRxiv.

According to Trevor Martin, Ceo of Mammoth Biosciences, COVID-19 “has exposed a big gap in the molecular diagnostics market. It is just one of the many gaps in most countries’ levels of preparedness for a viral pandemic”. As Cormack Sheridan writes, “given the uncertainties attached to the trajectory of the present pandemic, it is unclear whether CRISPR technology will make a major contribution to global efforts to track the progress of Sars-CoV2”, but “the need for such technology appears pressing.”