Making cells glow with a protein borrowed from jellyfish is one of the brightest ideas in chemistry. At least that is what the RoyalSwedishAcademy of Sciences implied when it announced October 8 that the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry would be awarded to three scientists who were instrumental in discovering green fluorescent protein, commonly called GFP, and developing the protein as a powerful tool for basic biological research.
Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien will equally share the $1.4 million prize.
GFP can absorb light at one energy and emit light at another. The result is that the protein glows, and glows with a specific color, when exposed to a specific wavelength of light. This function differs from that of bioluminescent proteins, which can generate their own light.