Dr Keith V Wood

Address for correspondence: Promega Corporation, Madison, USA

Dr Wood initiated the application of molecular biology to the study of firefly luciferase in 1984 as a graduate student of Dr. Marlene DeLuca in the Chemistry Department of the University of California, San Diego.

In collaboration with the laboratories of Dr Helinski , Dr Subramani, and Dr Howell, he demonstrated the utility of luciferase as a genetic reporter in prokaryotic, mammalian, and plant systems. He later expanded the study of the luciferase gene to other beetle luciferases, in part during post-doctoral studies under Dr William McElroy also at the University of California, San Diego.

Dr Wood joined the Promega Corporation in 1990 to continue his research in beetle bioluminescence, and to develop new and improved applications of these enzymes and their associated genes. At Promega, he developed a novel assay for firefly luciferase incorporating coenzyme A, which today has become the standard means of quantitating luciferase reporter activity.

Recently, Dr Wood has developed a new rapid co-reporter assay by integrating the chemistries of firefly luciferase with Renilla luciferase. Dr Wood has also developed modified versions of the luciferase gene and improved expression vectors for reporter analysis.

Current research in Dr Wood's laboratory includes development of thermostable luciferases, luciferases that emit different colors of light, technologies for high throughput screening of gene expression and cell viability, and technologies for detection of microbial contamination.