2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

The 2008 Nobel prize winners in Chemistry has been revealed for 3 persons for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP

Each share 1/3 of the prize

• Osamu Shimomura – USA – Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Woods Hole, MA, USA
• Martin Chalfie – USA – Biology professor at Columbia University New York, NY, USA
• Roger Y. Tsien – USA – University of CaliforniaSan Diego, CA, USA

Osamu Shimomura first isolated GFP from jellyfish drifting off the west coast of North America and discovered that the protein glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.

Dr Chalfie picked up on the discovery to demonstrate the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for biological phenomena.

Roger Tsien extended the colour palette beyond green, which allowed researchers to follow several different biological processes at the same time.