The accurate and timely diagnosis of disease is a prerequisite for efficient therapeutic intervention and epidemiological surveillance. Diagnostics based on the detection of nucleic acids are among the most sensitive and specific, yet most such assays require costly equipment and trained personnel. Recent developments in diagnostic technologies, in particular those leveraging clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), aim to enable accurate testing at home, at the point of care and in the field. In this Review, we provide a rundown of the rapidly expanding toolbox for CRISPR-based diagnostics, in particular the various assays, preamplification strategies and readouts, and highlight their main applications in the sensing of a wide range of molecular targets relevant to human health.

准确及时地诊断疾病是有效治疗干预和流行病学监测的先决条件。基于核酸检测的诊断是最敏感和特异的，但大多数此类分析需要昂贵的设备和训练有素的人员。诊断技术的最新发展，特别是那些利用成簇规律间隔短回文重复序列 (CRISPR) 的技术，旨在实现在家中、护理点和现场的准确检测。在这篇综述中，我们简要介绍了用于基于 CRISPR 的诊断的快速扩展工具箱，特别是各种检测、预扩增策略和读数，并强调了它们在检测与人类健康相关的广泛分子靶标方面的主要应用。