October 8 - Martin Chalfie, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and Roger Y. Tsien, a member of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences, will each receive a third of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein GFP. They will share the prize with Osamu Shimomura.
The researchers first observed the glowing green protein in jellyfish in 1962. This protein has become a critical tool in contemporary bioscience research on processes such as the development of nerve cells in the brain and the spread of cancer cells. When GFP attaches itself to other, invisible proteins, researchers can follow their movement under ultraviolet light and observe the fate of various cells, for example nerve cells in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
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