Unmet Need / Invention Novelty: Nucleic acid-based diagnostics are useful for detection of infection, disease, and/or genetic variants. There is a need to develop improved detection methods with enhanced speed, specificity, sensitivity, at low cost that can be used for diagnostic applications.
Technical Details: Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a novel method for the detection of target nucleic acids. The method uses isothermal amplification to amplify nucleic acids from a sample followed by utilization of sequence specific nucleases, such as CRISPR nucleases, as an actuator to allow for discrimination between specific and non-specific sequence amplification.
Value Proposition:
- Rapid and specific identification of target nucleic acids
- Inexpensive with minimal personnel time required
- Compatible with 96-well microplates for high-throughput diagnostic assays
Looking for Partners to: Develop & commercialize as a novel nucleic acid diagnostic method.
Stage of Development: Pre-Clinical
Data Availability: in vitro including proof of concept studies detecting synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
Publication(s)/Related Technology:
Zou RS, Gavrilov M, Liu Y, Rasoloson D, Conte M, Hardick J, Shen L, Chen S, Pekosz A, Seydoux G, Manabe YC, Ha T. Improving the specificity of nucleic acid detection with endonuclease-actuated degradation. Commun Biol. 2022 Mar 31;5(1):290. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03242-x. PMID: 35361863; PMCID: PMC8971390.
