The present invention relates to signalling catalytic nucleic acid nanostructures that are responsive to polymerase activity, methods of their use, devices and kits comprising the same. More specifically, the present invention provides a catalytic signalling nanostructure comprising a DNAzyme/RNAzyme, such as G-quadruplex hemin, and a polymerase—responsive element. Polymerase elongation of the polymerase-responsive element eliminates catalytic activity of the DNAzyme/RNAzyme. The catalytic nucleic acid nanostructure can be used alone or paired with a target recognition nanostructure which can transduce molecular signals into polymerase activity, in an integrated circuit.

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for the detection of target molecules, and the amplification of detectable signals generated by detection assays. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods utilizing catalytic nucleic acid enzymes to generate and/or amplify a signal indicative of the presence of target molecules (e.g. nucleic acids and proteins), and compositions for use in the methods.

A ribozyme comprising a target-binding domain, a polynucleotide encoding the same, a kit comprising the same, and uses thereof.

Disclosed are kinetically-controlled RNA biosensor constructs and related, nucleic acids, vectors, cells, systems and methods useful for detecting ligands of interest. Also disclosed are computer implemented methods for designing kinetically-controlled biosensors, guide RNA molecules, and/or target promoter sequences, and constructs produced thereby. Exemplary embodiments include scRNAs and expression cassettes incorporating synthetic promoters for implementation of CRISPRa.