UC San Diego professor Roger Tsien suffered from asthma as a child. It kept him indoors, so he honed his fascination in chemistry by taking part in lab experiments in his basement. Tsien’s interest in science has served him well. He won a national Westinghouse Talent Search at age 16 and went to Harvard on a National Merit Scholarship, where he graduated with a degree in chemistry and physics at age 20. He earned his Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Cambridge in England and developed organic dyes to track calcium levels inside cells to study nerve impulses and muscle contraction. He has worked at UC Berkeley as a physiology professor and most recently at UCSD as a professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry.

Now Tsien, age 56, Chinese and originally born in New York City, can add 2008 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry to his resume. He has been co-awarded the prestigious scientific honor along with Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and Boston University School of Medicine and Martin Chalfie of Columbia University in New York for their discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), a tool that allows researchers to peer into the inner workings of cells.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm Sweden announced the Nobel winners with this statement, “This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry rewards the initial discovery of GFP and a series of important developments which have led to its use as a tagging tool in bioscience. By using DNA technology, researchers can now connect GFP to other interesting, but otherwise invisible, proteins. This glowing marker allows them to watch the movements, positions and interactions of the tagged proteins.”

Tsien says his research that originates from a protein borrowed from jellyfish is “building molecules to look inside of cells, allowing us to see beyond what the human eye can see. Our work is often described as building and training molecular spies… molecules that will enter a cell or organism and report back to us what the conditions are, what’s going on with the biochemistry, while the cell is still alive.”

The process has important research implications for the development of medical therapies and drugs to treat diseases. American Chemical Society president Bruce E. Bursten said, “Green fluorescent proteins allow scientists quite literally to see the growth of cancer and study Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions that affect millions of people. This is chemistry at its very best, improving people’s lives.”

Tsien, whose father died of cancer, has a particular interest in expanding his work into the imaging and treatment of this deadly disease, “I’ve always wanted to do something clinically relevant in my career, if possible, and cancer is the ultimate challenge.”

David Brenner, M.D., Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Dean, UCSD School of Medicine said, “Dr. Tsien’s work has, and will continue to have, an enormous impact on human health by enabling researchers to study cells related to disease in detailed ways that had never before been possible.”

Tsien has been instrumental to his community by helping youths interested in science through a UCSD program called BioBridge. The program exposes students at San Diego County high schools to genetic research. Arthur B. Ellis, Ph.D. and Vice Chancellor for Research at UC San Diego said, “Along with his remarkable scientific achievements, Roger (Tsien) has also dedicated much of his time to working with and inspiring high school science students and teachers, introducing them to the wonders of DNA research through hands-on experiments in his laboratories. With this selection, the Nobel Prize Committee has not only honored an outstanding chemist, but a researcher and faculty member whose influences reaches far beyond the university.”

Sidebar -- Roger Tsien awards:

2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Wolf Prize in Medicine

Gairdner Foundation International Award

American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention

Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science

Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences

Keio Medical Science Prize, Keio University, Japan

(Source: UCSD News Center website)

Ray M. Wong is a freelance writer who syndicates a column called “Family Matters” to newspapers throughout the country. He can be contacted by e-mail at raywongwriter@juno.com.