Quantitative gene expression, promotor studies and Ca2+ imaging without phototoxicity and autofluorescence.

The detection of bioluminescent markers like Luciferase, Aequorin or BRET samples was limited to luminometers or low resolution imaging. The high signal to noise ratio and the lack of autofluorescence are just a few reasons for making the application of bioluminescent markers popular in HTS assays and in vivo imaging of small laboratory animals.
Because signal intensity dramatically drops with increasing magnification there was no way of using the advantages of bioluminescence for microscopy in the past. This will change with the new and unique luminescence microscope LuminoView LV200 introduced by Olympus. Optics specifically designed for luminescence increase the sensitivity of light detection remarkably and enable high resolution imaging of cells and tissues with standard CCD and EM-CCD cameras.

This outstanding innovation will backup standard fluorescence microscopy when phototoxic effects and strong autofluorescence exclude the application of excitation light for imaging. Main applications especially when light sensitive cells are involved are promotor studies, time lapse monitoring of gene expression, Ca2+ imaging and single cell ATP measurements.