DARPA program managers said they are developing different testing modalities that are crucially linked in their objective to facilitate more comprehensive and faster testing.
The contract was awarded under DARPA's Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies program, which aims to create a device to detect at least 10 pathogens.
The pace of development for CRISPR-based infectious disease assays increased as the pandemic progressed, more funding became available, and collaboration accelerated.
The two new tests, which have the capability to quantify a patient's viral load, have been designed without external RNA extraction or amplification steps.
