A new diagnostic test to quickly and easily monitor kidney transplant patients for infection and rejection relies on a simple urine sample and a powerful partner: the gene-editing technology CRISPR. Michael Kaminski, who developed it, leads a new Emmy Noether Group at the MDC & Charité.
The simplicity of urine sampling has been combined with the excellent sensing abilities of CRISPR to improve diagnostic testing for kidney transplant patients, an international research team reports in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
The new test screens for two common opportunistic viruses infecting kidney transplant patients, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and BK polyomavirus (BKV), and CXCL9 mRNA, whose expression increases during acute cellular kidney transplant rejection.
“Most people think of gene editing when they think of CRISPR, but this tool has great potential for other applications, especially cheaper and faster diagnostics,” said Dr. Michael Kaminski, who heads the Kidney Cell Engineering and CRISPR Diagnostics Lab at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Read the full press release at MDC.
Image credit: © Michael Kaminski, MDC