AP Photo:: In this Harvard University
Cambridge, MA (GroundReport) – Media reports say, three U.S.-based scientists have won a Nobel Prize on Wednesday for converting a glowing green protein from jellyfish into a brand new way to observe the tiniest details of life within cells and living creatures.
Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese researcher working in the U.S. and Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien shared the chemistry prize for discovering and developing green fluorescent protein, aka GFP, reports The Associated Press.
When the protein is exposed to ultraviolet light, it turns green. Interestingly enough, this unique protein can act as a marker on otherwise invisible proteins within cells to keep track of them as they go about their routine. The wonder protein can also tag individual cells in tissue. Additionally, it can reveal when and where specific genes turn on and off, AP reported.
"This is a technology that has literally transformed medical research," said Dr. John Frangioni, an associate professor of medicine and radiology at Harvard Medical School was quoted as saying in an AP report. "For the first time, scientists could study both genes and proteins in living cells and in living animals."