Recently, we proposed a novel biophysical concept regarding on the appearance of brilliant lights during near death experiences (NDEs) (Bókkon and Salari, 2012). Specifically, perceiving brilliant light in NDEs has been proposed to arise due to the reperfusion that produces unregulated overproduction of free radicals and energetically excited molecules that can generate a transient enhancement ...

A rapid, continuous method for noninvasively monitoring the effectiveness of several antibacterial agents in real time by using a model of wound infection was developed. This study was divided into three steps: (i) construction of a plasmid to transform Escherichia coli into a bioluminescent variant, (ii) study of the bioluminescent E. coli in vitro as a function of temperature and pH, and (iii...

In this study, we assess the feasibility of bioluminescence imaging to monitor the survival of Schwann cells (SCs) and olfactory ensheathing glia cells (OECs) after implantation in the lesioned spinal cord of adult rats. To this end, purified SCs and OECs were genetically modified with lentiviral vectors encoding luciferase-2 and GFP and implanted in the lesioned dorsal column. The bioluminesc...

Bioluminescent probes have hugely benefited from the input of synthetic chemistry and protein engineering. Here we review latest applications these in biotechnology beyond, with an eye on current limitations future directions.

Bioluminescence, the emission of ecologically functional light by living organisms, emerged independently on several occasions, yet the evolutionary origins of most bioluminescent systems remain obscure. We propose that the luminescent substrates of the luminous reactions (luciferins) are the evolutionary core of most systems, while luciferases, the enzymes catalysing the photogenic oxidation o...

Fish do it. Dolphins do it. Swimmers do it. Surface ships do it. In fact, the last German U-boat detected in the Great War was sunk because it did it. What they all do is create flow fields energetic enough to create bioluminescent "footprints." Because bioluminescent organisms are ubiquitous (particularly dinoflagellates, common members of marine plankton) flow-stimulated light emission repres...

Bioluminescence tomography (BLT) is a rapidly developing new area of molecular imaging. The goal of BLT is to produce a quantitative reconstruction of a bioluminescent source distribution within a living mouse from bioluminescent signals measured on the body surface of the mouse. While in most BLT studies so far the optical parameters of the key anatomical regions are assumed known from the lit...

This paper proposes a new biopsychophysical concept of phosphene phenomenon. Namely, visual sensation of phosphenes is due to the intrinsic perception of ultraweak bioluminescent photon emission of cells in the visual system. In other words, phosphenes are bioluminescent biophotons in the visual system induced by various stimuli (mechanical, electrical, magnetic, ionizing radiation, etc.) as we...

This study reports the first description and molecular characterization of naturally occurring, nonbioluminescent strains of Vibrio fischeri. These ‘dark’ V. fischeri strains remained non-bioluminescent even after treatment with both autoinducer and aldehyde, substrate additions that typically maximize light production in dim strains of luminous bacteria. Surprisingly, the entire lux locus (eig...