How a CRISPR Protein Might Yield New Tests for Many Viruses

January 4, 2023 • by Marc Airhart

It might enable inexpensive, highly sensitive at-home diagnostic tests for COVID-19, influenza, Ebola and more.

A protein holds open the two strands of a DNA double helix

In this illustration based on cryo-electron microscope images, a Cas12a2 protein unzips a DNA double helix, allowing it to cut the single strands of DNA (blue and green). Credit: Jack Bravo/University of Texas at Austin.


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