ucsd professor wins nobel prize in chemistry

More Nobel Prize news... Two Americans and one Japanese won the Nobel Prize in chemistry today for the discovery and development of brightly glowing protein first seen in jellyfish, work that has helped scientists study how cancer cells spread: 1 Japanese, 2 Americans win Nobel chemistry prize.

Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien shared the prize with Japan's Osamu Shimomura for their research on green fluorescent protein, or GFP, which is widely used as a laboratory tool to illuminate processes in living organisms, such as the development of brain cells or the spread of cancer cells.

According to the Royal Swedish Academy, Shimomura first isolated GFP from a jellyfish found off the west coast of North America in 1962 and discovered that it glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.

In the 1990s, Chalfie showed GFP's value "as a luminous genetic tag," while Tsien contributed "to our general understanding of how GFP fluoresce." Their work has enabled "scientists to follow several different biological processes at the same time."

Collectively, their work has enabled "scientists to follow several different biological processes at the same time." Researchers have been able to use GFP to track nerve cell damage from Alzheimer's disease or see how insulin-producing beta-cells are created in the pancreas of a growing embryo.

Tsien, 56, is a professor of pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego. You better believe there was a wicked awesome party at UCSD tonight: UCSD'S Roger Tsien shares Nobel Prize in chemistry.

UPDATE: Here's another article on Professor Tsien and his distinguished research: Illuminating work honored.