GFP Finally Gets Its Due
As you may have heard, three scientists Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien shared this 
year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry for their pioneering work on the Green Florescent Protein (GFP). GFP revolutionized the fields of molecular biology and cell biology and led to a greater understanding of the roles of proteins in cell, physiology, development and molecular trafficking.
I first became acquainted with GFP back in the mid 1990s when I was working in Bill Ward’s laboratory at Rutgers University. Bill had worked on GFP for over 25 years and I convinced him that GFP would be an ideal educational tool to teach biochemistry and molecular biology to undergraduate students. Prior to my arrival in Bill’s lab, a couple of graduate students had created so-called, “brightness” GFP mutants using molecular evolution techniques that were en vogue at the time. Because they were much brighter than wild type GFP, I used these mutants to develop laboratory exercises that showcased the principles of protein purification, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and molecular cloning. Although I published a paper on my work, it was the pioneering work of Ron Mardigian at BioRad that ultimately led to the development in 1997 of GFP-based education kits. Ron’s GFP kits were a huge success and are now used to teach biochemistry and molecular biology at the high school and college levels throughout the world.
GFP is an effective educational tool because everyone including children and adults is fascinated by things that glow. This brings to mind something that happened at a global GFP conference that Bill Ward organized in 1997 at Rutgers University. There were over 300 GFP researchers from all over the world in attendance. Bill, who is something of character and has a flair for the dramatic, wanted to WOW the conference attendees. Prior to the meeting, Bill asked us to prepare 2 liters of bacteria that over expressed the GFP “brightness” mutant. During the opening session of the conference, Bill had the 2 liter flask (sitting on a UV lamp) at the podium with him. The room was very dark (on purpose) and without warning he switched on the lamp—I will never forget the collective, audible gasp from the audience upon seeing the intense green glow emitted from the flask.
Even though I don’t work much with GFP anymore, I still get very excited when I see it. I suspect that many other people who also work with GFP or any of its color variants BFP (blue), YFP (yellow), RFP (red) etc feel the same way I do about GFP--you just can't wait to see it!
Until next time….
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!
Stemcyte