Researched
Green fluorescent protein
A glowing jellyfish protein, expressed in other organisms from 1994, lets scientists watch genes, proteins and cells at work inside living tissue.
Open in the interactive tree →Osamu Shimomura isolated GFP from the jellyfish Aequorea in 1962; Martin Chalfie showed in 1994 that it glows when its gene is placed in worms, and Roger Tsien made variants in other colours. The three shared the 2008 Chemistry Nobel Prize.
Prerequisites
- Microscope1665
- Genetic engineering1973
Unlocks
- Large-scale neural recording1990–2017Calcium sensors such as GCaMP are built on green fluorescent protein