EMD Millipore Launches LentiBrite™ Lentiviral Biosensors for Real-Time Visualization of Proteins in Live Cells

EMD Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, 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).

The 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

For more information on the LentiBrite™ lentiviral biosensors, please visit the company article page and search “Lentiviral Biosensor.”