Tech Tools Tackle Ocean Health Diagnosis

Field-deployable CRISPR-based biosensing platform could enable facile, real-time monitoring of marine barometer species and ecosystems

Published on Feb. 5, 2026

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Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and MIT have developed an inexpensive, laboratory-free CRISPR-based biosensing platform that can rapidly quantify marine species and their physiological states on-site. The platform has the potential to reduce barriers to routine monitoring of critical oceanic species and build large, user-driven data collections that can function as early warning systems of ecosystem disruptions.

Why it matters

Oceanic ecosystems are increasingly threatened by global warming, pollution, and other human impacts. Monitoring "barometer species" can provide critical insights into ocean health, but current methods are limited. This new CRISPR-based technology could enable widespread, real-time monitoring of key marine species to help drive effective climate change policy, remediation, and stewardship solutions.

The details

The CRISPR-based biosensing platform can detect DNA and RNA from three key barometer species: Vibrio bacteria, Pseudo-nitzschia algae, and the Caribbean Porites astreoides coral. It uses the CRISPR-Cas12a enzyme to target and detect the presence of these species, with a colorimetric lateral-flow assay providing a simple, instrument-free readout. The team also developed a portable, 3D-printed device that can process seawater samples and run the CRISPR assays on-site without the need for a lab. This field-deployable system could be used by a wide range of users, from ecologists to citizen scientists, to monitor marine ecosystems.

  • The findings are published in Nature Sustainability.

The players

James Collins

Wyss Founding Core Faculty member and Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science at MIT.

Peter Nguyen

Wyss Senior Scientist in the Collins group.

Nayoung Kim

The study's first author and a former Wyss Technology Development Fellow in the Collins group.

Donald Ingber

Wyss Founding Director, Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Vibrio

Pathogenic bacteria whose populations frequently explode in warming seawater, causing disease in shellfish, coral reefs, and humans.

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What they’re saying

“We aimed to lay the groundwork for more sustainable marine stewardship by developing a CRISPR-based technology platform that has the potential to reduce barriers to routine monitoring of critical oceanic species and to building large, user-driven data collections that can function as early warning systems of ecosystem disruptions.”

— James Collins, Wyss Founding Core Faculty member and Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science at MIT

“About 90% of the excess heat in the atmosphere caused by global warming has been absorbed by the oceans over the past five decades. This has been disrupting marine communities at an accelerated pace and impacted many natural species and entire ecosystems, the aquaculture industry and, as a consequence, also human health.”

— Peter Nguyen, Wyss Senior Scientist

What’s next

The researchers think that their field-deployable system could provide a low-cost, portable solution for marine ecosystem monitoring in the hands of a wide range of users, including ecologists, marine biologists, citizen scientists, conservationists, coastal communities, aquaculture farmers, park rangers, and biosecurity officers. Individual measurements could be uploaded via smartphone apps into large databases that, with the help of analysts and AI, could be used to synthesize more global trends and ring early alarms at critical moments.

The takeaway

This CRISPR-based biosensing technology represents an important step towards more sustainable marine stewardship, enabling widespread, real-time monitoring of key ocean health indicators and the potential to detect and mitigate ecosystem disruptions before they become severe.