Osamu Shimomura, a researcher in Princeton’s biology department from 1960 to 1982, was named a winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry Oct. 8 for a discovery he made while working at the University.
Shimomura was one of three scientists who shared the chemistry prize for their work related to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in jellyfish. The protein has become central to medical research as a tool for scientists to study genes and proteins inside living cells.
Shimomura, a Japanese citizen who came to the United States in 1960, first isolated GFP after he and Princeton professor Frank Johnson processed tissue from thousands of jellyfish they had collected along the coast of Washington state in 1961. Shimomura discovered that the protein glowed bright green when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Also sharing the Nobel Prize for their work in building on Shimomura’s discoveries were Martin Chalfie, a professor at Columbia University, and Roger Tsien, a professor at the University of California, San Diego.