Remembering Roger Tsien

Roger Tsien was the UCSD biochemist who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie. In the 1960’s, Shimomura discovered GFP, green fluorescent protein, in a Puget Sound jellyfish. In the 1990’s, Chalfie figured out how to infuse GFP into other animals and then Tsien refined GFP and developed color variants that could be inserted into cells and genes. The fluorescence that was created permits scientists to study the cellular mechanisms and genetic activity involved in biologic reactions. This, in turn, allows the study of disease mechanisms in conditions such as HIV and cancer. Dr. Tsien’s work has implications in many fields of medicine, genetics, and neurobiology.