Assay systems articles from across Nature Portfolio

CRISPR-based assays can be adopted as ultrasensitive molecular diagnostics in resource-limited settings, but point-of-care applications must address additional requirements. Here, we discuss the major obstacles for developing these assays and offer insights into how to surmount them.

Pooled testing for the diagnosis of COVID-19 via isothermal nucleic acid amplification and detection can be automated by using electromagnetically actuated swarms of millimetric magnets to handle droplets of magnetized samples on a microfluidic chip.

Lokwani et al. discuss the necessary considerations when performing spectral cytometry on highly autofluorescent samples to extract phenotypic information from autofluorescence spectra and perform accurate quantification of fluorescent labels.

In 2017 Professor Frances S. Ligler was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her inventions in portable optical biosensors. Professor Ligler now talks to Nature Chemistry about the challenge of developing new sensor designs into reliable products, and some of the pitfalls to avoid in the development process.

Freeze-dried genetic circuits can be integrated with textiles for the detection — colorimetric, or via fluorescence or luminescence — of small molecules and nucleic acids from SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens.

A method connecting single-cell genomic, transcriptomic or proteomic profiles to functional cellular characteristics, especially time-varying phenotypic changes, would inform our understanding of cancer biology. We present functional single-cell sequencing (FUNseq) to address this need and describe how it might provide a unique way to unravel mechanisms that drive cancer.