Osamu Shimomura

Osamu Shimomura isolated green fluorescent protein, or GFP, from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. GFP became a major tool because it lets scientists mark and observe proteins and cells with green fluorescence.

Shimomura shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien. The prize recognized the discovery and development of GFP as a biological marker.

Shimomura's GFP research is strongly associated with marine bioluminescence studies using Aequorea victoria collected from the Pacific Northwest. He later worked in the United States, including at institutions connected to Woods Hole.

GFP made it possible to tag living cells and proteins so researchers could watch biological processes under a microscope. Since the 1990s, engineered fluorescent proteins have become standard tools in genetics, neuroscience, and cell biology.