Vigilant: An Engineered VirD2-Cas9 Complex for Lateral Flow Assay-Based Detection of SARS-CoV2

Rapid, sensitive, and specific point-of-care testing for pathogens is crucial for disease control. Lateral flow assays (LFAs) have been employed for nucleic acid detection, but they have limited sensitivity and specificity. Here, we used a fusion of catalytically inactive SpCas9 endonuclease and VirD2 relaxase for sensitive, specific nucleic acid detection by LFA. In this assay, the target nucleic acid is amplified with biotinylated oligos....