Researchers at Tulane University developed ActCRISPR-TB, a novel diagnostic assay detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA from simple tongue swabs using integrated isothermal amplification and CRISPR-Cas12a in a single reaction. Demonstrating higher sensitivity than traditional sputum-based tests, it offers rapid, low-contamination-friendly, paper-strip readouts in under an hour. This point-of-care assay aims to enhance tuberculosis screening accessibility in low-resource settings, addressing limitations of current diagnostic methods dependent on challenging sputum samples.