Olympus Corporation

Nimura Genetic Solutions Co., Ltd.

Perak State Development Corporation

Hirobumi Suzuki

Ryutaro Akiyoshi

Katsunori Ogo

Kenji Kawasaki

Kenichi Koyama

Akihiro Namba

Akihiko Yoshikawa

Yoko Ohashi

Kiyotsugu Kojima

Hiroshi Ishiwata

Shinichi Dosaka

Mariko Murai

Takashi Kinebuchi

The present invention relates to a luciferase derived from a Malaysianfirefly, the luciferase having a maximum luminescent wavelength of 557 nm at pH 8, or the luciferase inducing luminescence having 1.5 times or more the luminous intensity of luminescence induced byfirefly luciferase.

Firefly luciferase

An object of the invention is to provide a novel and useful luciferase. The luciferase according to the embodiments of the invention is derived from

Luciferase derived from lucidina accensa

The present invention relates to a luciferase derived from a star-worm belonging to genus, the luciferase inducing luminescence such that a maximum luminous wavelength falls within a range of 557 to 562 nm over the entire pH range of 5.5 to 8.0, or the luciferase inducing luminescence having 1.5 times the luminous intensity of luminescence induced byfirefly luciferase.

Star-worm luciferase

According to one embodiment, the present invention relates to luciferase derived from Malaysianfirefly, the luciferase having a maximum luminescent wavelength of 580 nm at pH 8, or the luciferase indicating 23.3 times or more of luminescent intensity in comparison to that of Rhodamine 6G.

An object of the present invention is to provide a predetermined site luminescence measuring method and a predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus, which allow for determining whether, when the luminescence from the predetermined site in live samples is measured, a photoprotein is localized at the predetermined site in the same ones as the samples. An predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatusin the present invention is comprised of: a the sampleinto which a fused fusion gene is introduced, the fusion gene being obtained by fusing a fluorescence-related gene that expresses a fluorescence protein in addition to a targeting base sequence and a luminescence-related gene; a containerfor storing the sample, a stageon which the containeris arranged; a luminescent image capturing unitwhich captures a luminescent image of the sample(the objective lensto the CCD camera, and the imaging lens); a fluorescent image capturing unitwhich captures a fluorescent image of the sample(the objective lensto shutter); and an the information communication terminal

Predetermined site luminescence measuring method, predetermined site luminescence measuring apparatus, expression amount measuring method, and measuring apparatus

In a biological specimen imaging method, a biological specimen which is stored in a storing section of a substrate having plural storing sections and emitting a feeble light is imaged through an objective lens. The biological specimen imaging method includes moving any one of the substrate and the objective lens or both until the desired storing section falls within the field of view of the objective lens, measuring any one of a focal position at a near point and the focal position at a far point of the objective lens or both, determining the focal position of the objective lens focused on an observed target region in the biological specimen stored in the desired storing section based on the measured focal position, and adjusting the focal position of the objective lens to the determined focal position so as to image the biological specimen through the objective lens.

Biological specimen imaging method and biological specimen imaging apparatus

A focal position determining method determines a focal position of an objective lens focused on an observed target region in a specimen. The focal position determining method includes measuring any one of the focal position of the objective lens at a near point and the focal position of the objective lens at a far point or both so as to determine the focal position of the objective lens focused on the observed target region based on the measured focal position.

Focal position determining method, focal position determining apparatus, feeble light detecting apparatus and feeble light detecting method

Disclosed is a luminescence measuring method which can produce a luminous intensity depending on the amount of a substance to be measured even when the substance occurs in a biological sample in an amount equal to or more than a given amount, and which can achieve quantitative measurement. The method is characterized by includes preparing a biological sample containing a luminescence-associated protein which is can react with a substance occurring in the biological sample in amount equal to or more than a given amount and which has a Km value equal to or higher than a predetermined value so that the luminous intensity can be quantified depending on the amount of the substance, measuring the luminescence intensity emitted from the biological sample, and outputting a result of the measurement on a regions and/or part of the biological sample.

Luminescence measurement system

In order to be able to take an image of a specimen emitting low light in a short exposure time by a cooled CCD at about 0&#xb0; C., a low-light specimen image pickup unit has an imaging optical system forming a specimen image of a specimen having a point light source emitting a low light, and the low-light specimen image pickup unit further has an image pickup unit having a plurality of pixels receiving incident light, for taking an image corresponding to the specimen image. In the low-light specimen image pickup unit, the imaging optical system is telecentric to a side of the specimen image of the imaging optical system, and condenses the low light emitted from the point light source to form an Airy disk of a size which is substantially the same as a pixel of the pixels, or which is smaller than the pixel. Here, the pixel receives the low light emitted from the point light source.

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Hino, Japan

Hirobumi Suzuki