Green fluorescent protein, GFP, first observed in the jellyfish, Aequorea victoria in 1962 has become one of the most important tools used in contemporary bioscience. With the aid of GFP, researchers have developed ways to watch processes such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewards the initial discovery of GFP and a series of important developments, which have led to its use as a tagging tool in bioscience.

Osamu Shimomura first isolated GFP from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, which drifts with the currents off the west coast of North America. He discovered that this protein glowed bright green under ultraviolet light. He earned a PhD in organic chemistry 1960 from Nagoya University, Japan, and is Professor emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, Mass. and Boston University Medical School, Mass.

Martin Chalfie demonstrated the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for various biological phenomena. In one of his first experiments, he coloured six individual cells in the transparent roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans with the aid of GFP. He holds a PhD in neurobiology from Harvard University, and has been the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, New York, since 1982.

Roger Y. Tsien contributed to our general understanding of how GFP fluoresces. He also extended the colour palette beyond green allowing researchers to give various proteins and cells different colours. This enables scientists to follow several different biological processes at the same time. He holds a PhD in physiology from Cambridge University, UK. He has been a professor at the University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, Calif., since 1989.

Release Date: October 8, 2008
Source: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences