Tag Archives: COVID-19

Organoids & CRISPR in the toolbox of virologists

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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

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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.

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When CARMEN met the coronavirus

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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.

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The CRISPR community and Covid-19

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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

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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.

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CRISPR targeting COVID-19

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Alexandra East-Seletsky graphic

Hopefully, CRISPR-based diagnostics will make an early debut amid COVID-19 outbreak. But what about a CRISPR prophylactic strategy to combat coronaviruses? The proof of concept is here, in bioRxiv, but it will be deployed in the next pandemic if we are lucky. It’s called PAC-MAN, like the videogame, stands for Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR in huMAN cells, and comes from the Stanley Qi Lab.

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Toward a CRISPR-based diagnostics for COVID-19

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Do you remember Sherlock? The CRISPR-based platform was heralded in Science as a new generation of low cost diagnostic tests with single-base specificity, easy to use even when oubreaks occur in remote areas. The good news is that Feng Zhang and colleagues are sharing a research protocol, applicable to purified RNA, that may inform the development of a Sherlock test for COVID-19. For more information, visit the McGovern Institute website.