Scope BioSciences

CRISPR-Cas is the most important discovery in the field of biotechnology in the last decades, making great impact in a wide range of fields. Scope Biosciences uses CRISPR-Cas’ inherent specificity and ease of use to develop an on-site diagnostic platform which will revolutionize the field of diagnostics.

ScopeDx

Type III CRISPR-Cas Molecular Diagnostic

The platform technology for the molecular detection of infectious pathogens.

Overview

CRISP-Cas is considered to be one of the most revolutionizing discoveries in the biotech sector. CRISPR-Cas' most valuable characteristic is its extremely precise detection of DNA/RNA. This property makes it a useful tool for genetic engineering, but also makes it suitable for usage in diagnostics. The current golden standard in molecular diagnostics is (q)PCR, a rapidly adaptable and accurate but laboratory bound platform. CRISPR-Cas diagnostics (CRISP-Dx) retain the diagnostic quality and adaptability but offer various advantages over (q)PCR:

  • The inherent specificity of CRISPR-Cas allows for detection down to the single nudeotide (SNP), opening the door to mutant strain detection.
  • CRISPR-Dx offer an advantage in speed, with time to diagnosis of less than 45 minutes.
  • Due to the simplicity, CRISPR-Dx present the opportunity to take Dx out of the lab, opening up a product pipeline applicable in new and enticing markets.

Features and benefits

Scope BioSciences has developed and patented a unique CRISPR-Dx platform (ScopeDx), in collaboration with John van der Oost's Bacterial Genetics group at Wageningen University & Research. ScopeDx offers key advantages over competing Cas12 and Cas13 based CRISPR-Dx systems:

  • ScopeDx operates isothermally, whereas competing CRISPR-Dx systems require temperature changes making it impossible to have a one-step process and thus requiring addition of material to perform the CRISPR-Dx read-out step. Consequently, ScopeDx is less prone to cross-contamination and thus will result in less false results. Furthermore, one-step process requires less hands-on time over two-step processes, improving time to diagnosis.
  • ScopeDx operates at a constant 65 degrees Celsius, reducing interference of secondary RNA structures that often inhibits the function of conventional CRISPR-Dx.
  • One of the competing CRISPR-Dx requires a PAM recognition sequence, significantly decreasing the possible target selection. We do not require this sequence, giving us a much broader target selection.
  • ScopeDx has an intrinsic signal amplification module which the other CRISPR-Dx solutions lack, improving overall time to diagnosis.