Nobel Prize Winner Shimomura to Speak on BUMC, Nov. 17
Osamu Shimomura, PhD, BUSM Professor Emeritus and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will address the BU Medical Campus community on Tuesday, November 17. He will speak on “Discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein, GFP: My Nobel Prize Lecture.”
Shimomura is credited with the discovery of green fluorescent protein or GFP, which he observed in 1962 in the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria, found off the west coast of North America.
“This protein has become one of the most important tools used in contemporary bioscience,” according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. “With the aid of GFP, researchers have developed ways to watch processes that were previously invisible, such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread.”
Shimomura shared the $1.4 million prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Y. Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, both colleagues were recognized for pioneering cellular research techniques that use the proteins Shimomura identified.
The BUMC community is invited to join in the celebration of Dr. Shimomura and his achievements. The lecture will begin at 3 pm in the 670 Albany Street auditorium. A reception will be held at 4 pm in the lobby of the auditorium following Dr. Shimomura’s formal remarks.