Liangliang Hao, PhD

Point-of-care diagnostics saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic but has yet benefited chronic lung diseases. For life-threatening idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), one promising diagnostic approach is building biomarkers, indicators that can detect and differentiate diseases with similar symptoms at an early stage. However, advances of such biomarkers are limited by difficulties in determining the early cues that accurately reflect the molecular changes in the lung. We aim to develop an innovative early detection test for IPF that leverages the activity of disease-related proteases—enzymes that digest proteins—to shed specific sequences of DNA that are excreted in urine. Using CRISPR technology to analyze these DNA barcodes can predict a specific disease type. This test can be conducted noninvasively, requiring only a urine sample, and conveniently, on a paper-based system similar to a home COVID-19 test.