Lumitein™ is a luminescent dye designed for detecting proteins in SDS polyacrylamide (SDS-PAGE) gels, but that can also be used to detect proteins in native PAGE gels after an additional SDS incubation step. It is as sensitive as the best silver stain by detecting 1 ng or less protein. Unlike silver stain, however, Lumitein™ has a linear detection range of at least 3 orders of magnitude. Gels can be stained in 90 minutes or less without a separate fixation step. Lumitein™ has an excitation spectrum that makes detection possible with either a simple UV box or fluorescence laser scanner. Moreover, protein gel staining with Lumitein™ is compatible with downstream protein analyses such as mass spectrometry and Edman-based sequencing.