Keynote Presentation: CRISPR Powered Biosensors

Nucleic acid testing is crucial for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment monitoring of many diseases in medicine. Over the last years, microRNAs (miRNAs), short non-coding RNAs, as biomarkers have become increasingly important since a dysregulation of specific miRNA levels in human body fluids are linked to many diseases, such as Alzheimer of different types of cancer. Beyond its broad use in gene editing, CRISPR/Cas technology features a powerful tool for the highly sensitive and selective quantification of nucleic acids. In this talk, first a brief summary of CRISPR powered biosensing will be given. Then, a CRISPR/Cas13a powered electrochemical microfluidic multiplexed biosensor (CRISPR-Biosensors X) for on-site miRNA detection will be introduced. Without any target amplification, CRISPR-Biosensor X offers a low-cost, easily scalable, and multiplexed approach for nucleic acid diagnostics.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the fundamentals and different modes of CRISPR-enabled testing of nucleic acids.

2. Identify an electrochemical microfluidic approach for the simultaneous quantification of multiple miRNAs.

3. Differentiate future aspects of CRISPR/Cas technology with respect to biosensors.

4. Apply this knowledge to create new CRISPR-powered biosensing devices in future.