{"id":159265,"date":"2020-03-26T07:46:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T11:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=159265"},"modified":"2020-03-25T14:49:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T18:49:53","slug":"amidst-covid-19-outbreak-uconn-researchers-working-simple-low-cost-crispr-based-diagnostic-test-infectious-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/03\/amidst-covid-19-outbreak-uconn-researchers-working-simple-low-cost-crispr-based-diagnostic-test-infectious-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"Amidst COVID-19 Outbreak, UConn Researchers Working on Simple, Low-Cost CRISPR-based Diagnostic Test for Infectious Diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering\u2014 a shared department in the schools of Dental Medicine, Medicine, and Engineering\u2014have been working to develop a new, low-cost, <\/span>CRISPR-based diagnostic platform to detect infectious diseases, including the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With the recent outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, Changchun Liu, associate professor, developed the \u201cAll-In-One-Dual CRISPR-Cas12a\u201d (AIOD-CRISPR) method to enable simple, rapid, ultrasensitive, visual detection of SARS-CoV-2 and HIV viruses, intended for use at home or in small clinics. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Liu\u2019s lab has long focused on developing simple diagnostic technologies for infectious disease detection.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus has spread rapidly all over the world,\u201d Liu says. \u201cRapid and early detection of the\u00a0SARS-CoV-2\u00a0virus<\/span>\u200b\u00a0<\/span>will facilitate early intervention and reduce disease transmission risk. Our method has a great potential for developing next-generation point-of-care molecular diagnostics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method is currently considered the \u201cgold standard\u201d for disease diagnostics. However, the PCR method relies on expensive equipment and well-trained personnel. Liu\u2019s method, unlike the PCR, is isothermic (~37\u00b0C), and unlike other isothermal amplification technologies, has better sensitivity and specificity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Liu\u2019s lab, his AIOD-CRISPR system was successful in detecting the DNA and RNA of SARS-CoV-2 and HIV. Additionally, the method was evaluated by detecting HIV-1 RNA extracted from human plasma samples, achieving comparable results to the PCR method. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will further integrate the AIOD-CRISPR assay into our microfluidic diagnostic device to develop a rapid point-of-care diagnostic platform for SARS-CoV-2 detection,\u201d Liu says. \u201cWe envision that such simple, affordable, and mobile diagnostics technology can be widely used for rapid diagnostics of the SARS-CoV-2.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Liu responded to an outbreak with innovative diagnostic technology. During the 2015-2016 Zika outbreak, Liu\u2019s lab at the University of Pennsylvania developed <\/span>an instrument-free\u00a0point-of-care molecular<\/a><\/span> diagnostic platform for Zika virus detection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Postdoctoral researchers Xiong Ding and Kun Yin, along with PhD student Ziyue Li, collaborated with Liu on this study. <\/span>UConn has recently filed a patent application on this technology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The manuscript for this study <\/span>is available on the BioRxiv preprint platform<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The work was supported, in part, by R01EB023607, R01CA214072, and R21TW010625.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn researchers are working to develop a simple, low-cost method of testing for coronavirus and other infectious diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":159266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2213,2231,2076,2166,1868,179,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-159265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-coronavirus","category-health-well-being","category-research","category-sdm","category-meds","category-uconn-health","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:07:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159340,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159265\/revisions\/159340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/159266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159265"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=159265"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=159265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}