The Brightest Light …
NanoLight® Technologies is a division of Prolume Ltd. Prolume’s founder, Dr. Bruce Bryan, established NanoLight in 1996 together with a group of co-founders: Bryon Ballou PhD, Gene Fineley MD, Chris Szent-Gyorgyi PhD, Randall Murphy PhD, and Miroslav Trampota. Since 2012, the division has been led by Hendrik Schmidt PhD, Prolume’s head scientist. Our goal is simple: provide a broad range of bioluminescent reagents for this emerging scientific field.
NanoLight® Technology develops applications for natural, light-emitting marine proteins — also known as marine bioluminescence. We aim to become the leader in high-value reagent and reporter systems for new product development across the pharmaceutical, agrichemical, and research products industries.
Our technology supports a wide range of life sciences applications, including:
- High-throughput drug discovery
- Functional genomics
- Tumor imaging
- Replacement of radioisotopes
- Optogenetics
- Molecular diagnostics
One especially exciting use case: our reporter systems let researchers “illuminate” gene and molecular function inside living cells, giving pharmaceutical companies a powerful way to study drug activity.
Most of our substrates are lyophilized (freeze-dried) and stored under protective gas. This lets us ship them at room temperature — a major advantage as international shipping grows more challenging.
Since 2012, NanoLight® has supplied non-toxic, water-soluble bioluminescent substrates, primarily for in vivo imaging used to monitor tumor growth in mouse models. More recently, we’ve expanded into optogenetics, giving neuroscientists the ability to control neurons using bioluminescence.
Our research team keeps growing the product portfolio. One recent breakthrough, Prolume Purple™ (patent US 9,624,425), is a novel substrate that outperforms DeepBlueC™, a widely used substrate for studying protein-protein interactions.
Beyond basic bioluminescent compounds, we build these substrates into complex buffer systems for luciferases with different kinetic profiles. This gives researchers more convenience and provides reliable, batch-controlled reagents for automated high-throughput screening in pharmaceutical labs.
We’re also a leader in tools for sensing molecular targets. We offer streptavidin-conjugated versions of the two brightest known luciferases — Gaussia (GLuc-SA) and Oplophorus (NLuc-SA) — making it easy to detect biotinylated molecules like DNA, RNA, peptides, and proteins.
With decades of experience in the bioluminescent field, we offer custom reagents for specific, complex applications that other companies often overlook. By working closely with customers at research institutes and universities, we stay ahead of emerging trends and shape our products and services accordingly.