Homogeneous time resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer using rare earth cryptates as a tool for probing molecular interactions in biology

A homogeneous assay technology using time resolved fluorescence and fluores cence resonance energy transfer is described. A new class of fluorescent co mplexes, the cryptates, have been used as fluorescent donor with cross-link ed allophycocyanin as acceptor. This new donor/acceptor shows an exceptiona lly high Forster distance R-0 of 9 nm. This allows to build up a set of str ategies to probe the interactions of biomolecules in biology, particularly for high throughput screening applications. In this article, we describe th e basics of the technology and review applications developed for studying d ifferent key molecular interactions involved in cellular processes. (C) 200 1 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.