Publication date: Jun 11, 2026
The field of nucleic acid-based testing experienced a decade-long stagnation since the development of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in 1992 and isothermal amplification methods in the early 2000s. However, in 2016, the discovery of trans-nuclease activity in CRISPR-Cas systems revolutionized the molecular diagnostics for nucleic acids. A typical CRISPR diagnostic workflow comprises three phases: (1) target recognition through CRISPR RNA (crRNA)-guided hybridization; (2) signal transduction via trans-cleavage of engineered reporters (e. g., fluorophore-quencher oligonucleotides), and (3) signal readout using fluorescence, electrochemical, or colorimetric platforms. Emerging shortly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CRISPR diagnostics quickly gained prominence as a field-deployable alternative to qPCR due to its rapidity (
