HOMEBRED: A unified CRISPR platform for field-ready shadowing of infectious agents and oncogenic mutations

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Emerging infectious diseases and late-stage cancers demand rapid, sensitive, and deployable diagnostics. Here, we present HOMEBRED (highly sensitive & specific omnipresent multipurpose endonuclease based reliable detection), a CRISPR-based platform capable of detecting human and animal pathogens (viral/bacterial, RNA/DNA) alongside oncogenic transcripts. HOMEBRED advances veterinary medicine by integrating CaSilico, an automated tool that designs crRNAs by identifying conserved, mutant-resistant regions across pathogenic genomes. By combining CaSilico with extraction-free processing, the platform achieved field-ready FMDV (foot-and-mouth disease virus) detection with a visual readout using only a handheld blue light. Furthermore, HOMEBRED's dual-crRNA architecture differentiated Brucella vaccine strains from field isolates, overcoming long-standing DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated animals) limitations to prevent unnecessary culling of high-breeding-value livestock. In oncology, HOMEBRED distinguished BCR-ABL1 transcripts, establishing a foundation for early diagnosis and personalized therapy. Matching gold-standard PCR sensitivity with reduced complexity and cost, HOMEBRED offers a versatile, portable solution for precision diagnostics in point-of-care settings.