Keynote Presentation: CRISPR-Powered Multiplexed Biosensor for Point-of-Care Management of Infectious Diseases with Live Q&A

Nucleic acid analysis is crucial for the diagnostics of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. CRISPR/Cas technology, beyond its broad application in gene editing, features, in this regard, a simple and powerful tool for the highly sensitive and selective quantification of pathogen-specific oligonucleotides. Besides, single biomarker-based clinical decisions are often inadequate. To improve the accuracy, multiplexing, the measurement of various analytes from a single sample simultaneously, has recently gained great importance in diagnostics.
In this talk, first a short overview of CRISPR-powered biosensing will be given. Then, an electrochemical microfluidic multiplexed biosensor (BiosensorX) platform for on-site COVID-19 management will be introduced: i) CRISPR-powered nucleic-acid amplification-free and multiplexed testing of RdRp and E genes (SARS-CoV-2, Omicron-variant) along with LODs in the lower femtomolar range within a sample-to-result time of around 30 minutes, ii) monitoring ß-lactam antibiotics via an antibody-free bioassay using penicillin-binding proteins, and iii) the combination of both on the same chip to demonstrate the feasibility of the simultaneous measurement of different biomolecule classes. The BiosensorX technology is capable of gauging 4, 6, or 8 (different) analytes or specimen simultaneously via a sequential chip design within a single microfluidic channel.
By eliminating the need for a reverse transcription and target amplification of the pathogen-specific RNAs (necessary for PCR and other detection methods), BiosensorX system features a low-cost, simple-to-use, easily scalable and multiplexed strategy for point-of-care testing of nucleic acids via CRISPR-based bioassays and other biomolecule classes (such as drugs) simultaneously.

Learning Objectives

1. Summarize the fundamentals of CRISPR-powered biosensing.

2. Identify an electrochemical microfluidic multiplexed approach for the simultaneous measurement of nucleic acids and other biomolecules such as drugs or proteins.

3. Apply this knowledge to develop new CRISPR-based biosensors in future.