A humble, green-glowing jellyfish has unwittingly revolutionized how researchers study proteins and their activities in living cells. Three researchers whose independent work led to research tools based on the jellyfish’s fluorescent protein have been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The three equal winners are Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Boston University’s Medical School in Boston; Martin Chalfie of Columbia University; and Roger Y. Tsien of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The Nobel Prize cites all three “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP.”
A key feature of GFP is that it does not require the action of an enzyme or other cofactor to turn on its fluorescence. It emits green light in response to stimulation by UV or blue light. Thus researchers can genetically insert GFP to...
