CRISPR and Smartphone

American scientists have proposed to check for COVID-19 using a smartphone

Olga Orlova, Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Scientists from the Gladstone Institutes and the Universities of California at Berkeley and San Francisco have invented a tester that can detect the presence of coronavirus using an optical device of a conventional smartphone. It is compatible with all commercially available gadgets. This is reported by the scientific journal Cell (Fozouni et al., Amplification-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 with CRISPR-Cas13a and mobile phone microscopy).

In the new test, the Cas13 protein is combined with a reporter molecule that becomes fluorescent when cut, and then mixed with a patient's sample from a nasal swab. The sample is placed in a device that connects to a smartphone. If the sample contains SARS-CoV-2 RNA, Cas13 is activated and will cut the reporter molecule, causing a fluorescent glow. Then the smartphone camera, essentially transformed into a microscope, can detect fluorescence and report that the sample contains a virus.

A picture from the Gladstone Institutes New CRISPR-Based Test for COVID-19 Uses a Smartphone Camera – VM.

The publication reports that Fletcher and his colleagues had previously developed a similar technique for rapid diagnosis of HIV infection. Following the same principle, the researchers applied a technique to determine the coronavirus. What really makes this test unique is that it uses a one-step reaction to directly test viral RNA, as opposed to the two-step process in traditional PCR tests.

At the same time, the test determines not only the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body, but also its quantitative characteristics – the viral load.

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