CRISPR Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases
June 13, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing has been thought to be most useful in altering DNA, rather than simply diagnosing diseases. However, gene editing pioneers at the Broad Institute have developed a method of amplifying RNA to detect Zika virus at a very early stage of infection. According to this piece, the researchers “raised the levels of DNA or RNA in their samples using body heat and then performed a second amplification to convert the DNA to RNA. . . .. This improved the sensitivity of SHERLOCK by “a millionfold.” SHERLOCK stands for Specific High-sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter unLOCKing. MORE
Image Credit: MIT News