CRISPR-powered multiplexed biosensors for point-of-care testing of diseases and beyond

Nucleic acid testing is crucial for the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of infectious diseases. Over the last years, particularly the (re)emergence outbreak of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 further stimulates the development of novel point-of-care devices for nucleic acid diagnostics. Beside its wide application in gene editing, CRISPR technology provides a powerful tool for the highly sensitive and selective quantification of nucleic acids. In this talk, I will first give a short introduction of the CRISPR-based biosensing by providing some current examples. Then, I will introduce our BiosensorX, an electrochemical microfluidic multiplexed biosensor, for CRISPR-powered point-of-care diagnostics of different infectious diseases (COVID-19 and cytomegalovirus by using the Cas13 and Cas12, respectively) and beyond. Without any target amplification, CRISPR-BiosensorX features a low-cost, easily scalable and multiplexed approach for on-site detection of nucleic acids and other biomolecule classes (such as drugs like ß-lactam antibiotics for therapy management) simultaneously.