How Deep Sea Creatures can Improve Cancer Immunotherapy

A novel luciferase enzyme has been used in the development of a cytotoxic assay to determine cell death, shows study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The enzyme, extracted from deep sea dwellers is responsible for bioluminescence, giving these creatures their glow. Using this particular property of the enzyme, the team has developed the Matador assay which is used to measure cell death. The cytotoxic assay may allow to track progression of cancer immunotherapies by allowing oncologists to visualize if the therapy was successful in killing the cancer cells.