Billerica, MA — EMD Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck KGaA* of Germany, today launched a suite of LentiBrite™ lentiviral biosensors, pre-packaged lentiviral particles encoding proteins fluorescently tagged with green or red fluorescent protein (GFP or RFP).

LentiBrite™ Lentiviral BiosensorsThe initial group of biosensors will encode proteins responsible for cell structure such as actin and tubulin, a central marker of autophagy (degradation of a cell’s own components) – LC3, and proteins that mark the onset of apoptosis (programmed cell death). Future offerings will focus on neuroscience and nuclear proteins. The biosensors enable detection of the presence or absence of a particular protein, as well as the subcellular location of the protein in live cells under various states either by fluorescent microscopy or time-lapse video capture.

Use of lentivirus to deliver fluorescently-tagged proteins into cells offers higher efficiencies of transfection as compared with traditional chemical-based and other non-viral-based methods. In addition, the virus particles can be used to transfect dividing, non-dividing, and difficult-to-transfect cells, such as primary and stem cells, leading to long-term, stable expression of the transgene with low immunogenicity.

“With the LentiBrite™ pre-packaged lentiviral biosensors, researchers are able to easily and efficiently transfect cells and then visualize protein localization without disruption to cellular function,” describes Lucas Armstrong, Ph.D. R&D Manager of New Product Development. “Researchers can watch the real time movement of proteins involved in critical functions that are often altered in disease states such as cancer or induced through modulation.”

 GFP-LC3           Catalogue No. 17-10193

 GFP-LC3 Mutant    Catalogue No. 17-10189

 GFP-Tubulin       Catalogue No. 17-10206

 RFP-Tubulin       Catalogue No. 17-10205

 GFP-Vimentin      Catalogue No. 17-10152

 RFP-Vimentin      Catalogue No. 17-10153

 GFP-Beta-actin    Catalogue No. 17-10204

 RFP-Beta-actin    Catalogue No. 17-10203

 

About EMD Millipore

EMD Millipore is the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Germany and offers a broad range of innovative, performance products, services and business relationships that enable our customers’ success in research, development and production of biotech and pharmaceutical drug therapies. Through dedicated collaboration on new scientific and engineering insights, and as one of the top three R&D investors in the Life Science Tools industry, EMD Millipore serves as a strategic partner to customers and helps advance the promise of life science.