Tag-lite® two-cell assay: a valuable tool for protein drug discovery

The Tag-lite technology, developed by Cisbio Bioassays, is a combination of a classical TR-FRET and SNAP-tag® technology (New England Biolabs), which allows antigens present on the cell surface to be labelled with a fluorescent donor or acceptor dye. 

The assay involves the generation of two labelled cell populations; one cell type with terbium (donor fluorophor) labelled human FcγRIIIa, and a second with surface displayed antigen Y labelled with SNAPRed (acceptor fluorophor). In the presence of an antibody which can bind both labelled proteins, the cells will come into close enough proximity to allow energy transfer between fluorophores. 

The combination of this assay system with the excellent sensitivity and flexible wavelength and bandwidth selection offered by the Infinite® M1000 PRO multimode reader provides an invaluable tool for the assay development process. This will allow more in-depth analysis of protein-protein interactions in a physiologically relevant, cell-based environment.