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Luminescence Assay Systems
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy.
Luminescence is an attractive detection platform for many reasons:- Wide dynamic range of up to >5 logs
- Higher sensitivity compared to fluorescent technologies
- Less interference from screening libraries compared to fluorescent technologies
- Ease of automation and miniaturization for high throughput applications
- Cost effective
- Homogenous assay set up
Luciferase-based Assays (Glow luminescence)
Luciferase has been well defined as a preferred enzyme in luminescence assays due to the high sensitivity of detection (down to 1 fg)1. The high sensitivity of luciferase based assays is a result of the high quantum efficiency observed with luminescent reactions.
The luciferase reaction can be characterized in scheme 1 and is dependent on ATP and molecular oxygen: 
Scheme 1
The PerkinElmer luminescent assay systems produce long lived "glow" type signals making it ideal for use on a variety of luminescence detection instruments.
Aequorin-based Assays (Flash luminescence)
Aequorin is a photoprotein isolated from the jellyfish Aequoria Victoria. Upon calcium binding, aequorin oxidizes coelenterazine into colenteramide with the production of CO2 and emission of light. Figure 1 highlights the principle of aequorin following GPCR stimulation where increases in intracellular calcium enable the measurement of the resulting flash luminescence signal. The large robust signal generated enables the screening of agonists, antagonists and allosteric modulators. 
Figure 1
AequoScreen is PerkinElmer’s aequorin product range providing a generic GPCR technology which can be used with Gq, Gs and Gi coupled receptors and calcium coupled ion channels. It offers an ideal replacement technology for the standard fluorescent dyes enabling both cost and productivity advantages.
The entire family of luminescence assay systems offers you just what you need for studying G coupled protein receptors and performing Reporter Gene Assays and Cytotoxicity/Cell Proliferation Assays: exceptional efficiency, speed and simplicity for research and drug discovery applications.
1. Alam, J. and Cook, J.L. (1990). Reporter Genes: Application to the Study of Mammalian Gene transcription.
Anal Bioch., 188, pp. 45-254.
AequoScreen® Cell Lines
AequoZen Frozen Cells
Cytotoxicity/Cell Proliferation Assays
PhotoScreen™ Cell Lines
Reporter Gene Assays
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