MADISON, Wis.–Research results just published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry demonstrate the superior performance of Promega Ultra-Glo™ Luciferase. The research, conducted by the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), describes Ultra-Glo recombinant luciferase as approximately 90% less susceptible to small molecule inhibition compared to another commercially available luciferase. The NCGC is leading the US government-sponsored efforts aimed at developing biological probes and expanding the use of HTS assays in academic settings.

The studies reveal why most screeners prefer Ultra-Glo as the luciferase enzyme formulation in their screening and profiling regimens. Ultra-Glo was derived by directed evolution and is the key component in Kinase-Glo Assay and a suite of other bioluminescent assays for high throughput screening and profiling of small molecule compound libraries.

At the 2007 SBS meeting in Montreal, Dr. Mohammed Kashem from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, first reported similar findings when he compared Kinase-Glo and a second commercially available ATP-detection luminescent reagent for tolerance to interference by compounds in the BI screening deck. When asked to comment on the NCGC findings, Dr. Kashem replied, “The findings of Auld et al. are consistent with ours (Kashem et al., SBS 2007 Poster #PST1C016) that Kinase-Glo is much less prone to interference from library compounds than PKLight reagent, making it a superior ATP-detection reagent for identifying small-molecule modulators of kinases by HTS”.

Promega Corporation is a leader in providing innovative solutions and technical support to the life sciences industry. The company’s 2,000 products enable scientists worldwide to advance their knowledge in genomics, proteomics, cellular analysis, molecular diagnostics and human identification. Founded in 1978, the company is headquartered in Madison, WI, USA with branches in 14 countries and over 50 global distributors. For more information about Promega, visit www.promega.com.