Rice Scientists Develop Tool to Improve Virus Detection
Researchers at Rice University have engineered an improved version of the Cas13a enzyme to enhance the detection of RNA viruses like HIV. By increasing the enzyme's sensitivity, the team aims to create more reliable diagnostic tools for clinical and environmental testing.
Why it matters
Advancements in CRISPR-based diagnostics could lead to faster, more accurate, and more accessible testing for various viral diseases.
Scientists have long used a powerful gene-editing tool called CRISPR to make precise changes to DNA. But a different version of the technology, known as Cas13a, targets RNA, the genetic material found in viruses such as HIV. Now, researchers at Rice University have developed an improved version of Cas13a that could make it easier to detect HIV and other RNA viruses in blood and environmental samples. The study was published in Cell Chemical Biology .
"Any enzyme used in an assay needs to be both sensitive and stable," said Yang Gao , an associate professor of biosciences and the corresponding author on this paper. "It needs to be able to detect very small amounts of RNA while enduring harsh conditions, like high temperatures. Here, we took a stable Cas13a and engineered it to have the desired sensitivity."
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