{"id":235508,"date":"2025-10-16T07:05:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=235508"},"modified":"2025-10-16T19:02:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:02:44","slug":"researchers-revolutionize-rna-detection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/10\/researchers-revolutionize-rna-detection\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Revolutionize RNA Detection"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new method to detect ribonucleic acid (RNA) without needing any complex lab procedures or heating equipment has been developed by researchers at UConn Health.<\/p>\n

Published in Nature Communications<\/a>, Changchun Liu, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, created a new diagnostic test coined CAARRD (CRISPR Anti-tag Mediated Room-Temperature RNA Detection)\u2014paving the way for simpler detection of viral RNAs such as HIV.<\/p>\n

Standard CRISPR\/Cas13a tests serve as a powerful tool for RNA detection due to its RNA-targeting capabilities. However, simple and highly sensitive detection using Cas13a faces challenges, such as the need for pre-amplification (or boosting the number of targets) and elevated temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith CARRD, we were able to detect extremely small amounts of HIV and HCV RNA\u2014down to 10 attomolar, which is 10,000 times more sensitive than standard CRISPR\/Cas13a tests,\u201d says Liu.<\/p>\n

In the study, researchers found special \u201canti-tag\u201d CRISPR sequences that can block the activity of the Cas13a enzyme. The discovery led to the researchers creating the CAARD test\u2014streamlining the detection process.<\/p>\n

Since CAARD can operate at room temperature, the test effectively reduces the complexity and time associated with several multiple handling steps.<\/p>\n

This discovery paves way for a more simple, sensitive, fast, and cost-effective detection of viral RNAs, such as HIV, that can expand the accessibility of these tests in diverse clinical and environmental contexts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe successfully tested the method on real patient samples, detecting HIV RNA from clinical plasma, which shows the potential of this approach for low-cost, accurate viral testing in resource-limited settings,\u201d says Liu.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, future projects will focus on adapting the CARRD test to alternative readout formats, such as paper-based detection or integration with portable, low-cost fluorescence readers to enhance its suitability for point-of-care use in low-resource settings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work provides early preliminary data that supported Liu\u2019s recently funded\u00a0NIH R01 grant<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

UConn has also filed a patent application based on this technology.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARRD detects RNA at room temperature, making test simple, fast, and cost-effective<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":235633,"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":[1866,2460,2648,2076,2166,2235,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-235508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-faculty","category-blue-research","category-research","category-sdm","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-20 06:13:31","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\/235508","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=235508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236682,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235508\/revisions\/236682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/235633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235508"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=235508"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=235508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}