The Member’s Gallery, 2026
Dr. Xiong Ding
Ph.D., PI
Haowei Fu
Ph.D. Candidate
Dandan Shan
Ph.D. Candidate
Yunpeng Jiang
Ph.D. Candidate
DISCUSSION with us
What’s the next for nucleic acid amplification-based testing?
If you are a researcher focusing on molecular diagnostics, you are pretty familiar with polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Also, some guys know the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), and even more. However, when handling new pathogens-causing pandemics, PCR is still the nucleic acid amplification technique we trust. It is really ironic that PCR was born more than 40 years ago. If you look at the google scholar or web of science, an exponential increasing number of papers involving nucleic acid amplification-based testing are indicated. In these papers, many so-called “state-of-the-art” techniques are reported and validated but few ones are finally industrialized. For years, we’ve talked too much about LAMP, RPA, and other isothermal amplification methods by highlighting their advantages such as rapid, high sensitivity, and high specificity, as well as the independence of thermal cyclers. Particularly, RPA has long been considered as a perfect alternative to PCR, but the truth is, there’s not any chance of combating PCR in most application scenarios. Even towards point-of-care testing, isothermal amplification has to make compromises on detection accuracy and cost in comparison with PCR. This leads us to raise a question that “what’s the next for nucleic acid amplification-based testing”. If you want to discuss it, please leave a message to us.
10 Core Scientific Issues We’re Trying to Address
- Is there an isothermal amplification method which possesses rapidness, high efficiency, and simplified primer design as RPA, and meanwhile comprises a simple and high-yield reaction system as LAMP, as well as the simple detection format and the comparable cost as PCR?
- Is there a mini CRISPR-Cas system which has strong cis/trans-cleavage activity as CRISPR-Cas9/Cas12a but guided by short RNA such as crRNA, or even crDNA?
- Can loop-mediated isothermal amplification only require two primers and two target sites to perform high efficiency as six-primer-based LAMP assays?
- Is there a DNA-guided CRISPR-Cas system to cleave the DNA targets?
- Can 3D-printed chips be used for “sample-in-answer-out’ detection systems, high-throughput onsite or point-of-care detection platforms, and organ-on-a-chip systems?
- Is there a room-temperature, rapid, robust, high-efficiency isothermal amplification with or without CRISPR-based detection?
- What’s the fundamental molecular mechanism causing the nonspeicific amplification in LAMP, RPA, and other isothermal amplification methods?
- Can trans-cleavage activity of CRISPR-Cas system be tamed to be target-specific, thereby achieving multiplex detection using a single Cas in a single reaction?
- Is there a CRISPR-Cas system which doesn’t need any DNA/RNA guides for cis/trans cleavage but maintains high specificity to targets?
- Are there amplification-free/ “all-in-one” amplification-combined CRISPR-based diagnostics with comparable detection performances to TaqMan probes-based real-time quantitative PCR?
We highly welcome talented people to join us to address the issues above. Also, we are really looking forward to the issues being solved by the worldwide peers.
We can serve:
1. Design primers, probes, crRNAs and sgRNAs for your nucleic acid amplification- and CRISPR-based molecular diagnostics with rich experiences and high success
2. Provide home-made Cas and other enzymes for your molecular diagnostics with the comparable performances to commercialized products
3. Design and fabricate 3D-printed chips for your interesting research
4. Troubleshoot any issues in your research on nucleic acid amplification- and CRISPR-based molecular diagnostics with our expertise
If you are interested, please do not hesitate to contact us!
The MDPPM Laboratory 