Austin Jin, a senior at William A. Shine Great Neck South High School, has built a CRISPR‑based blood test that can spot tuberculosis and flag drug‑resistant strains in a single serum sample.
Tuberculosis claims more than a million lives annually, yet the standard sputum test is difficult for children and immunocompromised patients to provide.
M‑CATCH sidesteps this hurdle by amplifying bacterial DNA fragments that drift through the bloodstream, using polymerase chain reaction and the Cas12a CRISPR system.
A microfluidics chip runs hundreds of reactions in parallel, letting the device scan for multiple drug‑resistance mutations at once—something a single sample can’t do now.
Jin’s work earned him a 2026 Davidson Fellowship and a ₹50,000 scholarship, and he hopes to adapt the platform to other infections and even cancer in the future.
The test remains in the research phase and will need large‑scale clinical trials before it can be adopted in routine care. Patients should await official approval and discuss new options with their doctors.