Recent progress in molecular biology has made available several biotechnological tools that take advantage of the high detectability and rapidity of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence spectroscopy. These developments provide inroads to in vitro and in vivo continuous monitoring of biological processes (e.g. gene expression, protein-protein interaction and disease progression), with clinical, diagnostic and drug discovery applications. Furthermore, combining luminescent enzymes or photoproteins with biospecific recognition elements at the genetic level has led to the development of ultrasensitive and selective bioanalytical tools, such as recombinant whole-cell biosensors, immunoassays and nucleic acid hybridization assays. The high detectability of the luminescence analytical signal makes it appropriate for miniaturized bioanalytical devices (e.g. microarrays, microfluidic devices and high-density-well microtiter plates) for the high-throughput screening of genes and proteins in small sample volumes.