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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

CP17.1: Epidemiology & Diagnostics 10 min talks
Location: Lecture Theatre 3
Session Chair: Deepani Fernando, QIMR Berghofer
Session Chair: Luke Hall, St Vincent's Hospital Sydney

Presentation 1

A Field-Deployable CRISPR-Cas12/13 Diagnostic Platform Integrated with Rapid DNA Extraction for Helminth Detection

Mingsong Zhu^1,2, Skye MacGregor¹, Juliet French³, Malcolm Jones⁴, Hong You¹

1: Infection and Inflammation Program, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 2: UQ Centre Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 3: Cancer Research Program, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; 4: School of Veterinary Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton, Queensland, Australia

Helminth infections, particularly schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases, impose a severe global health burden, infecting more than a quarter of the world population, with a disproportionate effect on those in extreme poverty. Current diagnostic tests for worm infections are neither sufficiently sensitive nor field-friendly for use in resource-limited or low-endemic settings, leading to underestimation of true infection rates. Ultrasensitive, field-friendly, low-cost point-of-care diagnostics are urgently needed to better control these diseases.
Our group has established a highly sensitive CRISPR-Cas12/13-based platform for femtogram-level nucleic acid detection of multiple helminth infections. We also developed portable, lyophilized one-pot CRISPR detection to enable field testing, reducing reliance on cold-chain transportation and making it easier to perform. To further address the DNA sample preparation bottleneck in field applications, we developed a rapid extraction method that yields high-quality DNA for use with our CRISPR-based schistosomiasis diagnostic tool. Our method is faster and supports scalable, cost-effective field screening, compared with conventional DNA extraction.
To demonstrate the clinical utility of this integrated system, we are currently validating the assay for helminth detection using a large cohort of human samples from Uganda. This scalable, field-deployable approach holds significant potential to advance global NTD control and surveillance efforts.