SHERLOCK-based one-step test provides rapid and sensitive Covid-19 detection
A team of researchers at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Ragon Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has developed a new diagnostics platform called STOP (SHERLOCK Testing in One Pot). The test can be run in an hour as a single-step reaction with minimal handling, advancing the CRISPR-based SHERLOCK diagnostic technology closer to a point-of-care or at-home testing tool. The test has not been reviewed or approved by the FDA and is currently for research purposes only. The team began developing tests for COVID-19 in January after learning about the emergence of a new virus which has challenged the health care system in China. The first version of the team’s SHERLOCK-based Covid-19 diagnostics system is already being used in hospitals in Thailand to help screen patients for Covid-19 infection. The new test is named “STOPCovid” and is based on...