Marlene DeLuca Prizes Awarded

For outstanding scientific contributions to the 17th International Symposium on Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence the Marlene DeLuca award was presented to 4 scientists from Japan, Italy, France and the U.S.A. The award is intended to encourage young researchers in their scientific work and includes a $1,500 donation.

It has been named in honour of Marlene DeLuca who pioneered the science of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence, one of her many contributions being the first cloning of the firefly luciferase gene.

Berthold Technologies traditionally awards the prizes at the biennial meeting of the International Society for Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence (ISBC). The recent event took place in Guelph, Canada, and was hosted by Dr. Luba Brovko, Adjunct Faculty of Food Science.

The 4 young researchers were selected for their excellent presentations and results:

• Dan Close, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Center for Environmental Biotechnology: The use of autonomously bioluminescent human cell lines for detection of bacterial contamination.
• Kanako Terakado, Kyoto University, Dept. of Structural Biology: Structural basis for color modulation mechanism of firefly luciferase bioluminescence.
• Elisa Michelini, University of Bologna, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences: Whole-cell biolumi-nescence biosensor for on-site anti-doping screening.
• Celine Rosticher, University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, Laboratoire Chimie de la Matière Condensée: Synthesis and optical characterization of nanoparticles with persistent lumines-cence in the red – near infrared range.