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Nobel prizewinner describes his chemistry research as ‘a 1970s disco light'
Columbia University professor Martin Chalfie called the subject of his Nobel Prize-winning research "a 1970s disco light" that traces the growth of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.
Chalfie, 61, shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of green fluorescent protein, which tags the genetics of a cell. Roger Tsien, 56, of the University of California in San Diego, and Osamu Shimomura, 80, who isolated the jellyfish protein in the 1960s, are sharing the $1.4 million award with Chalfie.
Shimomura, of Japan, works at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and at Boston University.
At a Columbia news conference Wednesday, Chalfie said the development of the protein revolutionized medical and biological research, allowing scientists to follow an infection or a parasite through the body and study how cancer spreads.
"This is a prize for basic scientific research done at a university, not a corporation," said Chalfie, who said basic chemistry and biology research is routinely "played down or neglected."
Chalfie said breakthroughs in basic research are "the essentials in learning how diseases disrupt the body."
A biology professor at Columbia since 1982, Chalfie studied the protein at a university lab with graduate students who helped identify the gene that produces the protein. They then inserted the protein gene into the DNA of roundworms, and their cells glowed green.
Tsien, a professor of pharmacology, further developed the protein by making it shine more brightly and in different colors to tag a cell's genetic components.
The development of green fluorescent protein is a breakthrough for basic research that is rarely financed by government grants, which favor research on cures to diseases, said David Hirsh, Columbia's executive vice president for research.
"But the cures come from the first steps of how cells work," he said.
___
© 2008, Newsday.
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Shimomura, of Japan, works at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and at Boston University.
At a Columbia news conference Wednesday, Chalfie said the development of the protein revolutionized medical and biological research, allowing scientists to follow an infection or a parasite through the body and study how cancer spreads.
"This is a prize for basic scientific research done at a university, not a corporation," said Chalfie, who said basic chemistry and biology research is routinely "played down or neglected."
Chalfie said breakthroughs in basic research are "the essentials in learning how diseases disrupt the body."
Tsien, a professor of pharmacology, further developed the protein by making it shine more brightly and in different colors to tag a cell's genetic components.
The development of green fluorescent protein is a breakthrough for basic research that is rarely financed by government grants, which favor research on cures to diseases, said David Hirsh, Columbia's executive vice president for research.
"But the cures come from the first steps of how cells work," he said.
___
© 2008, Newsday.
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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