Chalfie, Martin

Chalfie, Martin,

1947–, American biologist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Harvard, 1977. In 1982 Chalfie joined the faculty at Columbia, where he is now the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Biological Sciences. In 2008 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roger TsienTsien, Roger Yonchien,
1952–2016, American biochemist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1977. Tsien was a researcher at Cambridge (1977–81) and a professor at the Univ. of California, Berkeley (1982–89) before he became a professor at the Univ.
..... Click the link for more information.
 and Osamu ShimomuraShimomura, Osamu,
1928–2018, Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, Ph.D. Nagoya Univ., 1960. Shimomura was a researcher at Princeton (1960–82) and a professor (1982–2001) simultaneously at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.
..... Click the link for more information.
 for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Using the GFP gene, which had been identified and cloned by Douglas Prasher, Chalfie demonstrated the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for various biological phenomena, enabling specific proteins to be located and tracked in living organisms. As a result of the work of the four scientists, GFP has become one of the most important tools in contemporary bioscience.