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Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (Bret) - Based Nanostructured Biosensor For Detection Of Glucose, Eugene Hwang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) is a distance dependent, non-radiative energy transfer, which uses a bioluminescent protein to excite an acceptor through resonance energy transfer. In this thesis, BRET technology is incorporated into a sensor comprised of a recombinant protein and quantum dots. The recombinant protein, which includes the bioluminescent protein, Renilla luciferase (Rluc), is used as the donor molecule and cadmium tellurium quantum dots as the acceptor molecules. Separating the donor-acceptor pair is a recombinant protein, glucose binding protein, which changes conformation upon binding glucose and brings the pair closer together, thus allowing BRET to occur. Optimization of the …