2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been announced, and this year, three scientists received the Nobel Prize for their work on green fluorescent protein (GFP).The three were Martin Chalfie (Columbia University), Roger Y. Tsien (UC - San Diego) and Osamu Shimomura (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA). Anyone who has watched the Discovery Channel has seen the images of jellyfish glowing in the depths of the ocean. These scientists not only isolated the fluorescent protein from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, but found a way to link it to an antibody to identify other proteins in a cell. When the cell is exposed to a certain wavelength of light, the tagged protein fluoresces, showing the location of the tagged protein.

Aequorea victoria

An image of a GFP labeled cell from the website of
Dr. Robert S. McNeil at the Baylor College of Medicine

As an interesting coincidence, I had the opportunity yesterday to attend a seminar at Appalachian State University given by Dr. John Henson of Dickinson College, PA. His area of expertise is cell biology, and specifically the structure and function of the cytoskeleton in sea urchin cells. What made his work truly impressive were the images. The detail and resolution that the GFP provided in the images was astounding. I can't imagine Dr Henson being able to present his findings without the use of GFP. I am sure that researchers and educators around the world would agree that Nobel Prize in chemistry was justly awarded.

Additional Links:

New Scientist's slideshow of how GFP has been used in research.

Announcement from the Nobel Foundation.