Nobel laureate sheds light on research

Columbia University alumni, students and parents gathered at the Longboat Key home of Thomas and Maureen Steiner Feb. 17, to hear Nobel Laureate Martin Chalfie speak.

Chalfie, a professor and former chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2008 for his work involving Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a biological marker. He shared the award with his research partners, Osamu Shimomura and Roger Tsien.

In 1988, Chalfie learned about GFP at a seminar at Columbia University. Intrigued, he decided to try using it as a marker that could be attached to DNA.

Chalfie began his research of GFP on small roundworms that are 1/25 of an inch long and are completely transparent. By injecting green fluorescent light into them, he could more easily see the organism’s cells.

His research, which was printed in 1994 in the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s magazine, aimed to answer two biological questions: “How do different types of nerve cells acquire and maintain their unique characteristics?” and “How do sensory cells respond to mechanical signals?”

Chalfie learned through his research that applying green fluorescent light to the cells of an organism results in better research and allows more about the organism to be seen. He learned that the advantages of GFP as a biological marker are that it is heritable, relatively non-invasive, small and monomeric and visible in living tissues.

“To me, the most exciting part of science is the idea and seeing if it works out,” Chalfie said. “It’s fun. They don’t always work out, but if they do, it’s exciting to be the first person to see the idea come to fruition.”

Since 1994, GFP and Chalfie’s research has been cited in more than 160,000 papers. GFP now has countless uses, from viewing the transfer of HIV in cells, detecting land mines and even making colored fluorescent silk scarves in Japan.

Columbia University is home to more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the U.S., with 82 awarded to faculty, students and alumni, according to Thomas Steiner.

The Steiners’ son, James, is a junior at Columbia University.