Protease assays

Issue 18 of Cell Notes, a serial publication of !%Promega Corp.%!, features an article on the use of the Caspase-Glo assays to perform whole-organism screening for apoptosis in zebra fish embryos. It notes that zebra fish provide an excellent biosensor for screening research, allowing researchers to translate molecular events to the whole organism. Along with numerous charts and diagrams, the 20-page document presents articles on custom enzyme substrates for luciferase-based assays, a cell-based assay for screening for calpain activity, and the use of a protease inhibitor to improve the quality of cell-based Caspase-Glo 8 and 9 assays. A discussion on the distinguishing features of the MultiTox-Fluor, CytoTox-Glo and MultiTox-Glo multiplex cytotoxicity assays for measuring the relative number of both live and dead cells in culture wells is included.