Green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a genetic marker
Proteína verde fluorescente (GFP) como marcador genético
- Date
- 1992-1994 · confidence high
- Place
- Columbia University, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Martin Chalfie; Osamu Shimomura (isolation, 1962); Douglas Prasher (cloning, 1992); Roger Tsien
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
In 1994 Chalfie expressed the gene for the green fluorescent protein of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria in bacteria and worms, which glow under blue light. The protein became the universal tag for viewing living genes, cells and proteins.
Shimomura isolated the protein in 1962 at Friday Harbor (United States), after working in Nagoya with Yoshimasa Hirata; Prasher cloned the gene in 1992 (Woods Hole) but lost funding. 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien).
What it led to
- live-cell microscopy and gene reporters
- Tsien's colour variants from blue to red
- neuron imaging (Brainbow) and fluorescent animals