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The accurate, rapid, and sensitive identification of cancer cells in complex physiological environments is significant in biological studies, personalized medicine, and biomedical engineering. Inspired by the naturally confined enzymes on fluid cell membranes, a fluidly confined CRISPR‐based DNA reporter (FINDER) was developed on living cell membranes, which was successfully applied for rapid and sensitive cancer cell identification in clinical blood samples. Benefiting from the spatial confinement effect for improved local concentration, and membrane fluidity for higher collision efficiency, the activity of CRISPR‐Cas12a was, for the first time, found to be significantly enhanced on living cell membranes. This new phenomenon was then combined with multiple aptamer‐based DNA logic gate for cell recognition, thus a FINDER system capable of accurate, rapid and sensitive cancer cell identification was constructed. The FINDER rapidly identified target cells in only 20 min, and achieved over 80 % recognition efficiency with only 0.1 % of target cells presented in clinical blood samples, indicating its potential application in biological studies, personalized medicine, and biomedical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-surface fluorescent probes are effective tools in cell biology and engineering. Here, we for the first time report a diacyllipid–aptamer conjugate-based fluorescent probe which could anchor on cell membrane for real-time tracking of potassium ions in the cell microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]