RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Bioluminescence and the Determination of the Color Emission Mechanism

FACULTY NAME & TITLE: WAEL RABEH, PH.D., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE OF CHEMISTRY

RESEARCH PROJECT DESCRIPTION Bioluminescence is found in various living organisms including bacteria, fireflies, beetles, marine organisms, and others. Luminous organisms produce light from an enzymatic reaction that involves the enzyme luciferase and its substrates luciferin and ATP in their ground state to produce a high-energy product in excited state that decays back to the ground state and release energy as a photon of visible light. Luciferase assays are used in biological and medical research, which currently represents the main analytical platform in the in vivo imaging, cell proliferation, and protein folding and secretion. Investigating the kinetic and emission color mechanisms of the luciferase reaction will improve and diverse some of the existing assays and develop new application...