Which study are you referring to about the luciferase?
Reporters are a huge toolbox used in biology, and luciferase is only one small set of tools that you can buy, for example here: https://reportergene.com/bioluminescent-imaging/
Learning to use these tools is basic knowledge for students and there are thousands of studies using these tools. This is just one example, they test how different medicine can make the mice less glowing after infection: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7162388/
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