Advancing sensing technology with CRISPR: From the detection of nucleic acids to a broad range of analytes – A review

Highlights: • The breakthrough achievements of CRISPR biosensors in non-nucleic acid detection are summarized. • The latest development of CRISPR biosensors in nucleic acid detection was introduced. • The challenges and prospects of CRISPR biosensors are described. • The chemical fundamental of the commonly used Cas enzyme was mentioned. The CRISPR/Cas technology, derived from an adaptive immune system in bacteria, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for its success in gene editing. Increasing reports reveal that CRISPR/Cas technology has a wide scope of applications and it could be incorporated into biosensors for detecting critical analytes. CRISPR-powered biosensors have attracted significant research interest due to their advantages including high accuracy, good specificity, rapid response, and superior integrity. Now the CRISPR technology is not only admirable in nucleic acid monitoring, but also promising for other kinds of biomarkers' detection, including metal ions, small molecules, peptides, and proteins. Therefore, it is of great worth to explore the prospect, and summarize the strategies in applying CRISPR technology for the recognition of a broad range of targets. In this review, we summarized the strategies of CRISPR biosensing for non-nucleic-acid analytes, the latest development of nucleic acid detection, and proposed the challenges and outlook of CRISPR-powered biosensors.