A cutting diagnosis

CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang has expanded the use of the gene editing technology to diagnostics by using an alternative cutting enzyme, and showed it can be used to create a sensitive tool for point-of-care detection of Zika or Dengue. The invention adds to the patent estate that Zhang is steadily building around CRISPR and its applications.

Zhang, a core institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and founding scientific advisor of gene editing company Editas Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT), led one of two teams that originally discovered how to use CRISPR-Cas9 for gene editing in human cells. His group was awarded the first patent on the technology, whose claims were recently upheld in a patent interference proceeding...