Validation by: Sameed Siddiqui, Ph.D.
Infectious Disease Research, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Researchers developed a bead-based luminescent CRISPR-Cas13 assay (bbLuc SHINE) for sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to evaluate its suitability for point-of-care diagnostics; the assay was deployed and tested in Nigeria using synthetic viral RNA and clinical patient samples.
Luminescence 96 was used for single-timepoint luminescence measurements, allowing researchers to detect viral RNA without requiring continuous signal monitoring. Reactions were incubated separately at 37 °C before measurement.
Figure 3 demonstrates the performance of the bbLuc SHINE assay under field conditions in Nigeria.
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Figure 3a: Demonstrates the compatibility of the assay with single-timepoint luminescence measurements.
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Figure 3c: Compares luminescence- and fluorescence-based SARS-CoV-2 detection using synthetic viral RNA.
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Figure 3d–e: Evaluates diagnostic performance using 18 clinical samples, comparing luminescence-based detection with fluorescence-based detection and RT-qPCR results.
Results: The luminescence-based assay demonstrated a 10-fold improvement in analytical sensitivity compared with fluorescence-based detection.
Using Luminescence 96 for signal measurements, the researchers successfully identified all 12 SARS-CoV-2-positive and 6 negative clinical samples in Nigeria. All positive samples were detected within 60 minutes, whereas the fluorescence-based assay identified only 7 of the 12 positive samples after 80 minutes.
These results demonstrate the suitability of Luminescence 96 for single-timepoint measurements in CRISPR-based molecular diagnostics, supporting its use in field-deployable applications and resource-limited settings.
Publication: Siddiqui, S. M., et al. Bead-based approaches for increased sensitivity and multiplexing of CRISPR diagnostics. Nature Biomedical Engineering (2026).
