This year’s Nobel prize was awarded to Osamu Shimomura,   Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien

"for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP"

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.

The remarkable brightly glowing green fluorescent protein, GFP, was first observed in the jellyfish, Aequorea victoria in 1962 and, since then, this protein has become one of the most important tools used in contemporary bioscience. With the aid of GFP, researchers have developed ways to watch processes that were previously invisible, such as the development of nerve cells in the brain or how cancer cells spread.

In addition to publishing in Elsevier Journals such as Cell and Trends in Biochemical Sciences, we are proud to announce that Roger Y. Tsien was a plenary lecture speaker during the Ninth Tetrahedron Symposium, held in Berkeley, California, July 22-25, 2008. Elsevier is also honoured that three other Chemistry Nobel Prize Laureates, Elias J. Corey (Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 1990), Jean-Marie Lehn (Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 1987) and Richard Schrock (Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 2005) will be presenting plenary lectures during the next Tetrahedron Symposium taking place in Paris, France, June 23 - 26, 2009 and coinciding with the 50th Anniversary Year of Tetrahedron Letters.