Osamu Shimomura
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下村 脩 Shimomura Osamu | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 27, 1928 |
| Nationality |  Japan[1] |
| Alma mater | Nagasaki University Nagoya University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Boston University Medical School Marine Biological Laboratory |
Osamu Shimomura (下村 脩, Shimomura Osamu, born August 27, 1928) is a Japanese[2][3][4] organic chemist/scientist and marine biologist, and Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University Medical School. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for the discovery and development of green fluorescent protein (GFP) with two American scientists: Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California-San Diego.
Early life
Born in Fukuchiyama, Kyoto in 1928, Shimomura was brought up in Manchuria, China and Osaka, Japan while his father served as an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. Later, his family moved to Isahaya, Nagasaki, where he temporarily lost his vision for a few weeks after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. He overcame great odds in the following 11 years to earn an education and achieve academic success. [5] His education and career was interruped in the devastated Japan during the early post WWII years. He enrolled in Nagasaki University and received a BS degree in 1951. He found employment as an assistant to Professor Yoshimasa Hirata at Nagoya University in 1956 [6]. While working for Professor Hirata, he was awarded an MS degree in Organic Chemistry at Nagoya University in 1958. His challenging assignment was to find out what made the crushed remains of a type of mollusc (Jp. umi-hotaru, lit. "sea-firefly", Vargula hilgendorfii) glow when moistened with water. Professor Hirata's assignment led Shimomura in the direction to identify the protein behind this and he published the preliminary findings in the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan in a paper entitled Crystalline Cypridina luciferin. The findings caught the attention of Professor Frank Johnson at Princeton University. Frank Johnson successfully recruited Shimomura to work with him in 1960. Before Shimomura left Nagoya University, Professor Hirata ensured that Shimomura's accomplishments were aptly recognized by awarding him in 1960 an honourary PhD degree in Organic Chemistry.
Study
Shimomura worked in the Department of Biology at Princeton where he worked for Professor Johnson to study the Jellyfish[7] Aequorea victoria. In 1962, their work culminated in the discovery of the proteins aequorin and green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the small, mouse-sized umbrella-shaped glowing jellyfish Aequorea victoria; for this work, he was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2008.
Family
His wife, Akemi, whom Shimomura met at Nagasaki University, is also an organic chemist and a partner in his research activities. Their son, Tsutomu Shimomura, is a computer security expert who was involved in the arrest of Kevin Mitnick. Their daughter, Sachi Shimomura, is Director of Undergraduate Studies for the English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of Odd Bodies and Visible Ends in Medieval Literature.
Awards
- Pearse Prize (2004)
- Emile Chamot Award (2005)
- Asahi Prize (2006)
- Nobel Prize (2008)
Sources
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2008
- Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence -Harvard University Press
References
- ^ "Osamu Shimomura". Nndb.com. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008
- ^ 「やり始めたら、やめたらダメよ」下村さん、子たちへ(Asahi Shimbun) He doesn't have an american nationality. Shimomura said "I'm Japanese. I don't think I need to be an American."Google translate
- ^ Aglow in the Dark: The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence
- ^ Woods Hole cell biologist wins Nobel Prize
- ^ Nobel goes to former Princeton researcher for discovery made here
