CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Charles Chiu, a UCSF professor of laboratory medicine as well as an MD, published a paper in the journal Nature in April 2020 that is expanding the way CRISPR can be used. The paper details a new test that he developed called DETECTR that uses CRISPR to diagnose COVID-19. The advantage of this assay over other diagnostic tools is that it provides expedited results, and does not require hospitals to invest in special equipment.