Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien were recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in developing the Green Fluorescent Protein and its colorful derivatives. Any laboratory that works with mammalian cell protein expression has come to rely on this tool for transfection work, whether using it as a test to determine if the transfection was successful, or tagging various proteins with the GFP to look at in vitro expression. Our lab commonly uses GFP and a few of these variations, including a nice vibrant Cherry to look at protein-protein interactions in cells. This photograph on the left is an image of a GFP-tagged protein expressed in mouse neuronal cells. The blue fluorescence represents the nucleus, stained with DAPI and the green light is emitted from the GFP-fused protein that was placed into the cell. The photo on the right also contains cells that are expressing a GFP-tagged protein as well as expression of a cyan-tagged protein to see if the two interact. In the instance that both proteins express in the same location in the cell, there would be a merge of fluorescent colors. For example, when a Cherry-tagged protein and a GFP-tagged protein co-express, the new fluorescent color is yellow.

It’s amazing to me that by re-engineering a few bits of the green fluorescent protein gene, we now have a full spectrum of colors from strawberry to plum, including just about everything in between. This may have been a lucky break on Tsien’s part, or just following the right hair-brained idea, but regardless, the whole science community has benefited from his work. Sometimes it’s the little discoveries that end up becoming the larger focus and in the long run, the more useful foundation for grander things. What have your little discoveries been and have they eventually led to something bigger and better?

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