Luciferase-based biosensors have a wide range of applications and assay formats,
including their relatively recent use in the study of viruses. Split luciferase,
bioluminescence resonance energy transfer, circularly permuted luciferase, cyclic
luciferase, and dual luciferase systems have all been used to interrogate the structure
and function of prominent viruses infecting humans, animals, and plants. The utility of
these assays is demonstrated by numerous studies which have not only successfully
characterized interactions between viral and host cell proteins but that have also used
these systems to identify viral inhibitors. In the present COVID-19 pandemic,
luciferase-based biosensors are already playing a critical role in the study of the
culprit virus SARS-CoV-2 as well as in the development of serological assays and drug
development via high-throughput screening. In this review paper, we provide a summary of
existing luciferase-based biosensors and their applications in virology.
Bam! Thunk! Bam! I awaken to commotion at my front door. Clash! Boom! It sounds like someone is trying to knock down my door. I hear voices outside my ground-floor apartment. My boyfriend, Kenneth, wakes up immediately. The banging is getting louder and louder. We are convinced that someone’s trying to break in. We walk out of my bedroom and down the hallway. I watch as he asks who’s at the door, but they don’t identify themselves. A battering ram takes the door out. Kenneth, licensed to carry, starts firing to defend against the intruders. The intruders, police officers, return fire. More shots stream in from the window. Several pierce me. I collapse. My clothes become drenched in my blood. As I lay there in my expanding blood bath, my dreams of becoming a nurse and starting a family fade. Soon, I stop breathing. Like an animal, my body remains on the cold, bloody floor. Later, I’m pronounced dead at the scene. My name is Breonna Taylor (Oppel & Taylor, 2023; Riley, 2020).
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