October 9, 2008
Nobel for the Noble Jellyfish
BY: Emily Fisher
Maybe you’ve heard by now — thanks to a fluorescent green protein (GFP) in jellyfish, three scientists have won a Nobel Prize in chemistry — they’ve turned the protein into a way to watch the tiniest details of life within cells.As the article states, “When exposed to UV light, the protein glows green and can act as a marker on otherwise invisible proteins within cells to trace them as they go about their business. It can tag individual cells in tissue. And it can show when and where particular genes turn on and off.””GFP has revolutionized lab work in medicine and biology, enabling scientists to get a visual fix on how diseases spread in mice and lab-dish cells or whether cells respond to treatment.”Hat tip to the jellies![Image: A human embryonic stem cell illuminated by green fluorescent proteins.]