In this regard nuertromar org. writes that the amount of discoveries that were made from this protein is invaluable according to Mario Ermacora, principal investigator of the Conicet and Professor of biochemistry of the National University of Quilmes-. Form part of the arsenal of reagents for molecular and cellular biology of all laboratories in the world, is used in antibodies, in isolated cells in complete bodies, to study the movement of organelles in cells or how will secrete proteins. The applications are quite numerous. But, in addition, has an incredibly beautiful property, which is the emit light.
It is a biochemical reaction very beautiful, very characteristic and very rare indeed as recalls Nora Bar in the drafting of the diario la nacion of Buenos Aires, when in 1955 a dark and inexperienced lab assistant Nagoya University began studying what did shine a mollusk remains if it damping them, nobody imagined that the investigations of Osamu Shimomuya, that young man whose education was interrupted by the tragedy of the atomic bomb, would lead to a scientific revolution. A year after they suitably the task of discovering why gleamed damp scraps of the Cypridina, Shimomura had in his hands a protein that was shining 37,000 times more than the powdered remains of molluscum. That work done in Japan earned him an unexpected degree of doctor and a contract from Princeton University, where – along with Frank Johnson six years later isolate from the Aequoria victoria (a jellyfish floating in ocean waters that bathe the western coasts of North America) a protein that is greenish in the light of the Sununder the light of an electric lamp is yellowish, and under fluorescent UV, green light. Today it is known as green fluorescent protein, or GFP. For the next 26 years, that chain of 238 amino acids that fold following the shape of a can of beer and within whose structure is the chemical group that absorbs ultraviolet light was little more than a curiosity of the natural world.