Shimomura, Osamu

▪ Japanese-born chemist

born 1928, Kyōto, Japan

      Japanese-born chemist who was a corecipient, with Martin Chalfie (Chalfie, Martin) and Roger Y. Tsien (Tsien, Roger Y.), of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. They were honoured for their work in the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), used as a tool to make visible the actions of certain cells. Shimomura discovered the protein, which he isolated from jellyfish, in 1962.

      In 1955 Shimomura became a research assistant at Nagoya University, where he earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1960. That same year, he traveled to the United States on the invitation of Princeton University. It was as a researcher there that he made the discovery that would lead to his Nobel Prize honour. In 1982 he moved his studies to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., from which he later retired as professor emeritus. He also worked at Boston University Medical School.

* * *