Smartphone Diagnostics Meets CRISPR

Smartphone-based optical imaging and sensing devices are among the next-generation biosensors that have shown great potential to transform the field of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. With the rapid improvement of hardware (e.g., lens, image sensor, and CPU), smartphone has become a transformative microscopy and sensing platform that can support various detection or biomedical measurement applications, especially for resource-limited settings. On the other side, smartphone diagnostics can maximize its potential for early disease detection by coupling with specific molecular assays, such as nucleic acid amplification tests and immunoassays. This talk will highlight our recent effort in creating advanced field-portable biosensor platforms based on smartphones and the integration of smartphone device with CRISPR assay to generate a new functional POC diagnostic platform. An unexpected trans-cleavage behavior of Cas12a against double-stranded DNA substrates is discovered, which greatly eases the design of CRISPR-Dx reporter molecules. Promising applications ranging from POC diagnostics of human diseases to rapid assessment of biomanufacturing products will also be illustrated.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Describe what is point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, and how CRISPR can be used for diagnostic applications.

2. Identify the advantages of CRISPR in POC diagnostics.

3. Identify the current challenge and limitations of CRISPR-based diagnostics.