Novel detection method for chemiluminescence derived from the Kinase-Glo luminescent kinase assay platform: Advantages over traditional microplate luminometers

The efficacy of cellular signal transduction is of paramount importance for the proper functioning of a cell and an organism as a whole. Protein kinases are responsible for much of this transmission and thus have been the focal point of extensive research. While there are numerous commercially available protein kinase assays, the Kinase-Glo luminescent kinase assay (Promega) provides an easy-to-use and high throughput platform for determining protein kinase activity. This assay is said to require the use of a microplate spectrophotometer capable of detecting a luminescent signal. This study shows that:•The ChemiGenius Bioimaging system (Syngene), typically used for visualizing chemiluminescence from Western blots, provides an alternative detection system for Kinase-Glo luminescence.•The novel detection system confers an advantage over traditional luminometers, in that it allows visualization of the luminescent wells, which allows for the real-time analysis and correction of experimental errors (i.e. bubble formation).•Determining kinase kinetics using this detection system produced comparable results to previous studies on the same enzyme (i.e. glycogen synthase kinase 3).