Back Cover: PAM‐Engineered Toehold Switches as Input‐Responsive Activators of CRISPR‐Cas12a for Sensing Applications (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 17/2024)

The RNA-programmed CRISPR-Cas12a activity requires two factors: complementarity between the guide RNA and the dsDNA, and a short Palindromic Adjacent Motif (PAM) flanking the target. In their Research Article (e202319677), Alessandro Porchetta et al. rationally designed PAM-engineered DNA hairpins as input-responsive activators of Cas12a. By utilizing the trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a as a signal transduction method, the authors demonstrated the rapid, one-pot detection of IgG antibodies and small molecules.