CRISPR diagnostics is coming

Nature was right in choosing CRISPR diagnostic as one of the seven technologies to watch in 2022. The latest news is a test called mCARMEN, described in Nature Medicine. Pardis Sabeti (Broad Institute/Harvard), Cameron Myhrvold (Princeton University) and colleagues adapted a massively multiplexed technology presented in 2020 to be “faster, more sensitive and more easily implemented in clinical and surveillance labs”.

Continue reading

Organoids & CRISPR in the toolbox of virologists


Human gut organoids infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Credit: Joep Beumer/Hubrecht Institute)

“Virologists have infected millions of miniature organs with SARS-CoV-2, to learn how the virus wreaks havoc and how to stop it,” writes Smriti Mallapaty in the latest issue of Nature. In one study, published in Science Immunology in 2020, researchers used CRISPR in gut organoids to identify two proteins (TMPRSS2 and TMPRSS4) that facilitate the virus entry into human cells, together with the ACE2 receptor. “Other labs are knocking out ACE2 entirely, to see whether the virus can still get in”. Here the full text of the news feature.

CRISPR milestone: FDA approves first diagnostic test

May 7th 2020 will be remembered as a good day for CRISPR. Yesterday the first CRISPR/Cas-based test received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Sherlock SARS-CoV2 kit works by programming a CRISPR enzyme to detect the coronavirus genetic signature, providing results in about one hour. Quickly and cheaply indeed, as the materials for one test cost about $6.

Continue reading

When CARMEN met the coronavirus

Say hello to CARMEN: a massively multiplexed, Cas13-based technology for nucleic acid detection, out yesterday in Nature. Its name stands for Combinatorial Arrayed Reactions for Multiplexed Evaluation of Nucleic acids, and it allows us to test many amplified samples for the presence of many viral sequences by using miniaturized detection reactions that self-organize in a microwell array. Sars-Cov2 included.

Continue reading

The CRISPR community and Covid-19

Researchers from all the life sciences are turning their attention to the pandemic, and the CRISPR community is no exception. The latest CRISPR Journal‘s editorial presents a few of the projects that are showing promise, and others are probably going on. Kevin Davies and Rodolphe Barrangou also comment on the cancellation or postponement of several key conferences in the next few months due to Covid-19, especially the CRISPR 2020 meeting in Paris. They applaud all the scientists who are battling this disease in myriad ways and promise: we’ll meet again.

CRISPR application to infectious diseases

CRISPR holds promise for the treatment of cancer and inherited disorders, as you know, but what about infectious diseases? It can do many useful things indeed, according to this review by Jeffrey Strich and Daniel Chertow, published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Continue reading