The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presented three scientists with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Wednesday for discovering a protein in jellyfish that aids in the study of diseases.
U.S. scientists Martin Chalifie and Roger Tsien worked with Japan's Osamu Shimomura to discover the green florescent protein, known as GFC, according to a press release.
Ultraviolet light causes the protein to glow and allows scientists to map its movement, to expose the movement of unknown proteins attached to GFP and to mark cells. In the past decade, the discovery has led to the better study of Alzheimer's-related cell damage, the growth of tumor and cancer cells and the development of brain cells.
The protein has been a "guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in the press release.
-M.M.
