Top 5 Luciferase Reporter Vectors You Didn’t Know You Needed (But Now Can’t Live Without) 

Ever spent your Friday night troubleshooting a cloning reaction that just won’t work?  We’ve been there. So have thousands of other scientists. That’s why Promega and Addgene teamed up to create something game-changing: a curated collection of 600+ luciferase reporter vectors, designed to help you skip the cloning and get straight to the data.  Addgene, […]

Matching Luciferase Reporter Assays to Your Experimental Goals

Luciferase reporter assays are highly versatile, but their true power comes when the reporter system you’ve selected is well aligned with your experimental objectives. Whether you’re tracking transcriptional changes or pathway activity, assessing miRNA/siRNA regulation, or using as a readout in CRISPR-based screens, choosing a reporter and detection assay format that fit your specific research […]

How to Choose a Luciferase Reporter Assay

Luciferase reporter assays are essential tools in molecular and cellular biology, offering sensitive and quantitative means to study gene expression, transcriptional regulation, signal transduction pathways, and cellular responses to various stimuli. With multiple luciferase reporters and detection reagents available, how do you know which one fits your specific workflow or readout needs? Choosing a reporter […]

From Drug Screening to Agriculture to Cardiac Development, A Dual-Luciferase Reporter Brings You the Story

Today’s blog was written by guest blogger Katarzyna Dubiel, marketing intern in Cellular Analysis and Proteomics. Last updated 02/12/2021 Reporter gene assays have been critical for the study of a wide-range of biological questions, from regulation of gene expression to cellular signaling. While reporter gene assays constitute a large group of technologies, here we highlight […]

A Normalization Method for Luciferase Reporter Assays of miRNA-Mediated Regulation

Today’s blog is from guest blogger Ken Doyle of Loquent, LLC. Here, Ken reviews a 2014 paper highlighting specific considerations for using reporter assays to study miRNA-mediated gene regulation. The accelerated pace of research into noncoding RNAs has revealed multiple regulatory roles for microRNAs (miRNAs). These diminutive noncoding RNA species—typically 20-24 nucleotides in length—are now […]

Choices for Measuring Luciferase-Tagged Reporter Pseudotyped Viral Particles in Coronavirus Research

Coronavirus (CoV) researchers are working quickly to understand the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells. The Spike or S proteins on the surface of a CoV is trimer. The monomer is composed of an S1 and S2 domain. The division of S1 and S2 happens in the virus producing cell through a furin cleavage site between the two domains. The trimer binds to cell surface proteins. In the case […]

NanoLuc® Luciferase Powers More than Reporter Assays

What can you do with a small, super bright luciferase? Amazing things. We’ve highlighted many of the papers and new applications that NanoLuc® luciferase has enabled on this blog. While NanoLuc® luciferase was first introduced as a reporter enzyme to assess promoter activity, its capabilities have expanded far beyond a genetic reporter, creating bioluminescent tools […]

Dual-Luciferase or Dual-Glo Luciferase Assay System? Which one should I choose for my reporter assays?

I’ve got a set of experiments planned that, if all goes well, will provide me with the answer I have been seeking for months. Plus, my supervisor is eagerly awaiting the results because she needs the data for a grant application, so I don’t want to mess it up. However, I am faced with a […]

Choosing Primary and Control Reporters for Dual-Luciferase Assays

Dual-Reporter Assays give scientists the ability to simultaneously measure two reporter enzymes within a single sample. In dual assays, the activity of an experimental reporter is correlated with the effect of specific experimental conditions, while the activity of a control reporter relays the baseline response, providing an essential internal control that reduces variability caused by […]

Using Dual-Luciferase Assays to Identify the Role of Non-Coding RNAs in Disease

In recent years, non-coding RNAs—especially microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)—have emerged as powerful regulators of cellular behavior. These molecules modulate gene expression, often by targeting mRNAs for translational suppression or degradation. Two recent studies—one focused on osteoarthritis and the other on 5-Fu-resistant colorectal cancer—illustrate how these non-coding, regulatory RNAs operate within disease-relevant signaling […]