A taste of the early steps in BAX activation with FLAMBE

The activation of BAX through intricate intramolecular changes is critical for apoptosis. In this issue of Cell Reports Methods, Gelles et al. report engineering FLAMBE, an elegant fluorescence polarization ligand assay for monitoring the early activation of monomeric BAX via real-time release of a peptide probe, expanding the repertoire of BAX activation assays to the single-molecule level.