Nobel goes to former Princeton researcher for discovery made here

Osamu Shimomura, who today was named a winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry , will receive the award for a discovery he made while working at Princeton. Shimomura, who was a researcher in the Department of Biology from 1960 to 1982, will be honored along with two other researchers for his work on the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in jellyfish. The protein, a key tool of contemporary bioscience, was discovered by Shimomura in his lab at Princeton in 1961. Reached by telephone today, Shimomura said of the Nobel, "This was very unexpected. I am surprised but happy." He is a professor emeritus at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and Boston University Medical School. Scientists now use GFP to track processes inside individual cells. The protein does not need any additives to glow - instead it must be radiated with ultraviolet or blue light before turning bright green.