The increasing demand for decentralized public health surveillance, particularly in resource-limited settings, highlights the urgent need for point-of-care testing (POCT) technologies. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-based diagnostics (CRISPR-Dx) have emerged as powerful alternatives to conventional pathogen detection methods, offering high sensitivity, programmability, and compatibility with portable platforms. In this work, we review various CRISPR-Cas systems to develop CRISPR-Dx, ranging from fundamental mechanisms to practical applications. We discuss advances in CRISPR-Dx, focusing on paper-based devices, microfluidic systems, electrochemical sensors, and wearable sensors. We also assess their applications in pathogen detection and discuss technical challenges, translational feasibility, and future development directions. This work provides a framework to support the continued advancement and real-world implementation of CRISPR-based POCT technologies for public health surveillance.
Pan et al. (2026) studied this question.