"Revolutionizing Nanomanipulation: CRISPR-Enabled Optothermal Nanotweezers"
Researchers have developed a new method called CRISPR-powered optothermal nanotweezers (CRONT) that combines the CRISPR-Cas system with optothermal manipulation to identify bionanoparticles and detect DNA at ultralow concentrations. By harnessing diffusiophoresis and thermo-osmotic flows, the scientists successfully enriched DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles, CRISPR-associated proteins, and DNA strands. The CRONT system demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms, making it a promising tool for point-of-care diagnostics, biophotonics, and bionanotechnology applications.