Imaging the World’s Brightest Luminescent Protein

Dr. Takeharu Nagai, from Osaka University, is developing a probe compatible with optogenetics studies. Optogenetics uses light to control cells in living tissues that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. For this study Dr Nagai fused a luminescent protein from the sea pansy Renilla reniformis with a fluorescent protein previously designed, and compared the result to the original template. Images were analyzed using the Evolve™ EMCCD camera from Photometrics.