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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

With new CRISPR inventions, its pioneers say, you ain't seen nothin' yet [statnews.com]

Some of the world's leading CRISPR labs have, independently, tweaked CRISPR — adding bursts of light here and rings of DNA there — in ways that could make it even more of a research powerhouse and, possibly, a valuable medical sleuth, able to detect Zika, Ebola, and cancer-causing viruses, or a cell's history of, say, exposure to toxins.

The inventions, which, like CRISPR itself, have been given clever acronyms — DETECTR, CAMERA, and SHERLOCK — show that scientists have yet to exhaust CRISPR's talents. The technology is beginning to look like a Swiss army knife (we told you [statnews.com] that was the best metaphor) rather than a mere Word editor.

In fact, its potential utility — and profitability — as a molecular diagnostic tool and biosensor are enticing enough that the inventors of the three new uses of CRISPR have all filed for patents on them, and a fourth lab scrambled to post its own CRISPR-based biosensor invention on the bioRxiv preprint server at the exact second that the others were reported in the journal Science.

Also at Science Magazine [sciencemag.org] (for CAMERA).

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