Hui R Zeng

US Patent:

20040185518, Sep 23, 2004

Filed:

Sep 30, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/673409

Inventors:

Richard Thompson - Baltimore MD, US
Michele Cramer - Baltimore MD, US
Carol Fierke - Ann Arbor MI, US
Hui Zeng - Catonsville MD, US
Rebecca Bozym - Timonium MD, US

International Classification:

C12Q001/48

US Classification:

435/015000

Abstract:

A highly selective and sensitive of a carbonic anhydrase-based method for measurement of zinc ion by an excitation ratiometric format based on resonance energy transfer: i.e., where the zinc ion level is transduced as the ratio of fluorescence intensities excited at two different excitation wavelengths, is provided. The method can be used very well in a fluorescence microscopy format. A detection limit of about 10 pM in zinc buffered systems, a ten to one thousand-fold improvement on the Fura indicators (which respond to Ca and Mg as well), and a one hundred thousand-fold improvement on the recently described FuraZin-1 is achieved.