Xenogen has developed Bioware™ animal models, in which pathogens, target genes, or tumor cells are tagged with luciferase, which emits light when the pathogen or gene is present or cells are growing. The company also offers LPTA™ transgenic animals modified with gene-specific luciferase reporters that permit gene expression tracking throughout the animal's growth and development. "When the genes are expressed or when the pathogen or the tumor cell is present, or growing in the body of an animal," says Pam Contag, Xenogen's president, "we can actually image that across the whole body of the animal with spatial resolution, over time, and with a great degree of sensitivity."
Researchers monitor the animals with Xenogen's IVIS™ Imaging System, which combines a CCD camera with an imaging chamber optimized for detecting bioluminescence in Xenogen's animal models. Contag says Xenogen improved the CCD system's sensitivity 100-fold to detect the very low levels of light ...
