Why using Bioluminescence for Cellular analysis in Cosmetic research by PROMEGA

9 November 2018

Although scientists may draw upon a range of photon-emitting chemistries to serve different experimental purposes, increasingly bioluminescence is becoming a preferred choice for many types of analyses. This article outlines the underlying reasons for the advantage bioluminescence brings to bioanalytical methodologies.

The bioluminescence advantage

Bioluminescence is a form of chemiluminescence where the light-yielding reaction is derived from a naturally catalyzed process, such as the enzymatic reactions found in luminous fireflies, jellyfish, bacteria and others. Bioluminescence chemistries are becoming increasingly popular in a variety of bioanalytical methods because they can deliver 10- to 1,000-fold higher assay sensitivity than fluorescence assays. This greatly increased sensitivity can substantially improve assay performance when applied in complex biological samples. The reason is evident upon examining the mechanism for light production and how it affects implementation into assay methods.⁽¹⁾

In all luminescent chemistries, energy is absorbed by light-emitting molecules to create excited-state intermediates. Light is produced as this energy is released from the excited states in their transition back to the corresponding ground states (Figure 1). As luminescent chemistries are differentiated by how the excited states are created, this also fundamentally affects how they perform as assay technologies. In fluorescence and bioluminescence, this difference is reflected in their relative signal strengths and signal-to-background ratios.