Luciferins and their applications in Cancer Research
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Andrew Banaag
College:
The Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Major:
Chemistry
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Subhasish Chatterjee, Matthew Mongelli
Abstract:
A very common form of luminescence that is seen by many people is from fireflies. Firefly luminescence is the resulting oxidation reaction of a luciferin substrate (D-Luciferin) and a luciferase enzyme. Although a lot less commonly known, many marine organisms such as copepods and deep water shrimp are also bioluminescent like fireflies, but use a different luciferin called Coelenterazine, which has a different structure than firefly luciferin and also goes through a similar oxidation process as D-Luciferin. Another form of luminescence can be found from bacterial organisms as well. Although each of the three previously mentioned luciferins all go through similar oxidation processes, their mechanisms all differ in their own ways, but researchers have been able to use the luciferin-luciferase reactions of each to all perform the same task: identifying cancer cells, which can allow researchers to figure out if cancer cells have shrunken from treatment. Researchers are able to inject the luciferase enzyme into cancer cells which are then injected into mice. Luciferin is also then injected into the mice, and with full body imaging, researchers are able to see the photon emission in the cancer cells.