CRISPR diagnostic technology is well-known as the "next generation diagnostic technology" due to its advantages of specificity, sensitivity, and simplicity. Up to date, merely two types of Cas proteins (i.e. Cas12 and Cas13) are found to possess the trans-cleavage activities, which nonspecifically cleave non-target single-stranded nucleic acids and can be employed for the development of next-generation CRISPR diagnostic systems. Our group first characterized the Cas12 ssDNA trans-cleavage activities and then created the HOLMES system for rapid nucleic acid detection. So far, HOLMES has been used in many scenarios of rapid nucleic acid detection. Here, I will give examples on the applications of HOLMES in rapid detection of non-nucleic acid targets. 

 Keywords: CRISPR, Cas12, trans-cleavage activity, HOLMES, non-nucleic acid detection

Jin Wang, Ph.D., CEO of ToloBio and Professor of the First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University. Dr. Wang obtained his PhD in microbiology from the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and subsequently completed his postdoctoral research in microbiology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Now, he is focusing on the development and applications of the CRISPR-based next-generation molecular diagnostic technologies and is also a recipient of the National Science Fund for the National Distinguished Young Scholars in China. In 2017, his group first discovered the ssDNA trans-cleavage activities of CRISPR/Cas12 protein, and subsequently developed the HOLMES rapid nuleic acid detection system. In 2020 and 2021, he promoted the exclusive patent cross-licensing collaboration between ToloBio and Sherlock Bio. In the future, he and his group are willing collaborate with IVD fellows to promote the industrialization of the CRISPR diagnostic technologies.