A novel thermostable beetle luciferase based cytotoxicity assay

Development of a thermostable firefly luciferase

Firefly luciferase forms the basis of a wide range of analytical techniques. However, the enzyme is unstable and rapidly loses activity even at room temperature. This leads to losses in sensitivity and precision in analytical applications and also severely limits the fieldability of devices incorporating luciferase-based technologies. A number of point mutations have previously been identified ...

A Novel Bioluminescent Protease Assay Using Engineered Firefly Luciferase

Proteases play important roles in a variety of disease processes. Understanding their biological functions underpins the efforts of drug discovery. We have developed a bioluminescent protease assay using a circularly permuted form of firefly luciferase, wherein the native enzyme termini were joined by a peptide containing a protease site of interest. Protease cleavage of these mutant luciferase...

Studying Membrane Biogenesis with a Luciferase-Based Reporter Gene Assay

To study the coordination of different lipid synthesis pathways during membrane biogenesis it is useful to work with an experimental system where membrane biogenesis occurs rapidly and in an inducible manner. We have found that phagocytosis of latex beads is practical for these purposes as cells rapidly synthesize membrane lipids to replenish membrane pools lost as wrapping material during part...

LightSwitchTM Luciferase Assay System

Requirement of a conservative cytotoxicity assay selection in cellular experiments

Assessment of the cellular effects of natural and/or synthetic products is one of the major goals in biological experiments. This assessment may be conducted at different levels; cellular viability, cellular biological activity, and cellular structure and morphology. Different assays are available for any of above purposes. It is becoming of a routine exercise to apply any of these assays, and ...