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[[Image:Green_Fluroescent_Mice.jpg|thumb|left|Mice transfected with GFP. One can easily distinguish the wild-type mouse (middle) from the two mice with GFP (left and right)<cite>Moen2011</cite>.]] | [[Image:Green_Fluroescent_Mice.jpg|thumb|left|Mice transfected with GFP. One can easily distinguish the wild-type mouse (middle) from the two mice with GFP (left and right)<cite>Moen2011</cite>.]] | ||
Green Fluorescent Protein, or GFP, was first isolated from the crystal jellyfish Aequorea victoria in the 1960s. In 1994, GFP was successfully cloned<cite>Chalfie1994</cite>, allowing researchers to use the protein as a screenable marker for the first time. Virtually harmless in live cells, GFP has the unique | Green Fluorescent Protein, or GFP, was first isolated from the crystal jellyfish Aequorea victoria in the 1960s. In 1994, GFP was successfully cloned<cite>Chalfie1994</cite>, allowing researchers to use the protein as a screenable marker for the first time. Virtually harmless in live cells, GFP has the unique phenotype of glowing bright green under ultraviolet light. GFP functions entirely of its own accord, and requires no exogenous material besides ionizing radiation in order to fluoresce. This allows GFP to be used as a marker accompanying transfected DNA, and has been used extensively in academia. | ||
The scientist to first discover GFP, [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95545761 Douglas Prasher], was not included in the eventual Nobel prize it was associated with in 2008. Prasher had run out of funding for his research in the 1990s at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution after donating his isolated GFP gene to Tsien and Chalfie, two of the scientists who eventually won the Nobel prize for GFP. After his last project proposal was rejected by National Institutes of Health, Prasher moved on to multiple jobs before eventually settling down as a shuttle bus driver for many years. Prasher now works as a senior scientist at [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/douglas-prasher/5/b92/a80 Streamline Automation]. | |||
In 2011, GFP was used to create an in vivo mammary model to investigate tumorigenesis in mice. Tumor cells were introduced into the mice, accompanied with GFP as a screenable marker. As the mice tumors proliferated, so did GFP. This allowed for easy differentiate between tumors and stroma cells, greatly aiding cancer researchers<cite>Moen2011</cite>. | In 2011, GFP was used to create an in vivo mammary model to investigate tumorigenesis in mice. Tumor cells were introduced into the mice, accompanied with GFP as a screenable marker. As the mice tumors proliferated, so did GFP. This allowed for easy differentiate between tumors and stroma cells, greatly aiding cancer researchers<cite>Moen2011</cite>. | ||
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Selectable genetic markers can also be used to investigate protein activity. Research performed at the University of Washington used GFP coupled with inteins to splice GFP into other proteins with greater than 96% efficiency. The GFP proved harmless to the intein's activity, and also allowed the researchers to analyze the effectiveness of the inteins themselves<cite>Ramsden2011</cite>. | Selectable genetic markers can also be used to investigate protein activity. Research performed at the University of Washington used GFP coupled with inteins to splice GFP into other proteins with greater than 96% efficiency. The GFP proved harmless to the intein's activity, and also allowed the researchers to analyze the effectiveness of the inteins themselves<cite>Ramsden2011</cite>. | ||
