Osamu Shimomura

Facts

Osamu Shimomura

© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: U. Montan

Osamu Shimomura
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008

Born: 27 August 1928, Kyoto, Japan

Died: 19 October 2018, Nagasaki, Japan

Affiliation at the time of the award: Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, MA, USA; Boston University Medical School, Massachusetts, MA, USA

Prize motivation: “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP”

Prize share: 1/3

Work

Some organisms produce what has been named Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), which emits a shimmering light. The formation of GFP is regulated by a gene that can be incorporated into the genomes of other organisms. Because GFP can be linked to other proteins thanks to genetic engineering, it has become an important tool for studying biological processes in cells. The first steps in achieving this were taken by Osamu Shimamura, who isolated GFP from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria in the 1960s and found that the protein glowed green when illuminated with ultraviolet light.

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