Glucose glows in vivo with a new bioluminescent probe

Author(s): Ellen P. Neff ¹

Author Affiliations:

(1) Lab Animal,

Maric, T. et al. Nat. Methods 16 , 526-532 (2019)

Most organisms wouldn't get far without glucose. But while healthy cells are fueled by the simple sugar, cancerous ones can be too. Too much of the sweet stuff can also lead to metabolic conditions, such as obesity and diabetes. The ability to keep track of glucose metabolism in vivo is thus an important consideration for researchers studying its effects on healthy and not-so-healthy bodies.

Writing in Nature Methods , Tamara Maric and colleagues in Elena Goun's lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) present a bioluminescent glucose-uptake probe dubbed 'BiGluc'. In the proof-of-concept paper, the team tested BiGluc in cell lines...