Will CRISPR help us fight coronavirus?

😷 75,645 cases             🙏 2,130 deaths             🗺 27 different countries. 
(Statistics for Feb. 21, 2020)

With exponential growth, Coronavirus outbreak is definitely a serious issue you are probably aware of.  You may also know that most of its symptoms, such as fever or cough, are very similar to that of the flu or a common cold. This makes it difficult to get an early diagnosis of the condition, which is crucial to prevent the virus from spreading.

At this point, you may be thinking, ok, that is kind of interesting, even scary, but nothing really new until now. So, how can CRISPR help us to fight coronavirus?

CRISPR?
Promising emerging biotechnology that allows us to identify, copy and paste DNA sequences. Thus, it is possible now to edit the genetic material of an organism with high precision. When it comes to humans this is an extremely controversial topic that involves many ethical issues. 

However, there is another less known as well as less controversial use of CRISPR. As we already know, among other things, CRISPR allows for identification of a sequence of the DNA of a human being. But... what if instead of using this feature for editing the human DNA, we used it to identify viral RNA to be able to diagnose a particular disease? This has already been implemented by a number of Biotechnology companies that have developed accurate and portable diagnosis kits based on CRISPR that tackle infectious pathogens such as the human papillomavirus.

A New Tool

Researchers from MIT and Harvard are now trying to adapt SHERLOCK (a rapid, affordable, highly sensitive CRISPR-based diagnostic tool) so that it can be used to diagnose coronavirus. This project is still in an early stage of a long development process, but this proves how humans adopt emerging technologies to find faster and better solutions.

Do you want to know more about SHERLOCK and CRISPR? Check the following video: