Osamu Shimomura

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Osamu Shimomura (2008)

Osamu Shimomura ( Japanese 下 村 脩 , Shimomura Osamu ; born August 27, 1928 in Kyōto ; † October 19, 2018 in Nagasaki ) was a Japanese biochemist and, together with Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry .

life and work

Shimomura graduated from Nagasaki with a degree in pharmacy in 1951 and then worked as an assistant to Shungo Yasunaga in the Pharmacy Department of Nagasaki University for four years . In 1955 he switched to organic chemistry at the laboratory of Yoshimasa Hirata at Nagoya University . In 1960 he was recognized for its studies on the luciferin of Cypridina a doctorate in organic chemistry doctorate . He then went to Frank Johnson at Princeton University . After an unscheduled professorship for geosciences from 1963 to 1965 at Nagoya University, he finally went to the USA: from 1965 to 1982 he did research at Princeton University. From 1982 to 2001 he was an honorary professor at Boston University and a researcher at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory . From 2001 he ran his private photoprotein laboratory .

Shimomura worked in the field of bioluminescence , especially of marine life. From 1955 he investigated the blue glow of Cypridina , whose luciferin he was able to crystallize in 1956. In 1961 he discovered aequorin and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria . He devoted his further research life almost entirely to exploring the properties of these two molecules. To examine the structure of aequorin - which shows chemiluminescence in the presence of Ca 2+ - more closely, he had to catch two and a half tons of jellyfish (around 50,000 animals) and extract the blue fluorescent molecule AF-350 from it. Later he developed semi-synthetic aequorin molecules with improved calcium sensitivity. After Martin Chalfie succeeded in expressing the aequorin gene in other living things in 1994, larger quantities were available, so that Shimomura was finally able to determine the structure of aequorin by means of crystal structure analysis in 2000 . In 1974, with the help of employees, he was able to explain the energy transport from Aequorin to the GFP and in 1979 determine the structure of the GFP.

Shimomura was married to Akemi Shimomura. He died in October 2018 at the age of 90. His son Tsutomo Shimomura is a computer security expert .

Fonts (selection)

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Osamu Shimomura  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nobel chemistry laureate Shimomura dies ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 21, 2018 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www3.nhk.or.jp
  2. ↑ For Yoshimasa Hirata see: Short biography of Yoshimasa Hirata ( memento of the original from March 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / orgreact.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp
  3. ↑ O. Shimomura, T. Goto and Y. Hirata: Crystalline Cypridina luciferin . In: Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan . Volume 30, 1957, pp. 929-933; doi: 10.1246 / bcsj.30.929
  4. ↑ Osamu Shimomura, Frank H. Johnson and Yo Saiga: Extraction, purification and properties of aequorin, a bioluminescent protein from the luminous hydromedusan, Aequorea . In: Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology . Vol. 59, No. 1, 1962, pp. 223-239; PMID 13911999 ; doi: 10.1002 / jcp.1030620103
  5. ^ O. Shimomura and FH Johnson: Structure of the light-emitting moiety of aequorin . In: Biochemistry . Volume 11, No. 9, 1972, pp. 1602-1608; PMID 4402156
  6. ↑ O. Shimomura, B. Musicki and Y. Kishi: Semi-synthetic aequorin. An improved tool for the measurement of calcium ion concentration . In: Biochemical Journal . Volume 251, No. 2, 1988, pp. 405-410; PMID 3401214 ; PMC 1149017 (free full text)
    O. Shimomura, B. Musicki and Y. Kishi: Semi-synthetic aequorins with improved sensitivity to Ca 2+ ions . In: Biochemical Journal . Volume 261, No. 3, 1989, pp. 913-920; PMID 2803250 ; PMC 1138916 (free full text)
    O. Shimomura, B. Musicki, Y. Kishi and S. Inouye: Light-emitting properties of recombinant semi-synthetic aequorins and recombinant fluorescein-conjugated aequorin for measuring cellular calcium. In: Cell Calcium . Volume 14, No. 5, 1993, pp. 373-378; PMID 8519061
  7. ^ JF Head, S. Inouye, K. Teranishi and O. Shimomura: The crystal structure of the photoprotein aequorin at 2.3 Å resolution. In: Nature . Volume 405, No. 6784, 2000, pp. 372-376; PMID 10830969 ; doi: 10.1038 / 35012659
  8. ↑ H. Morise, O. Shimomura, FH Johnson and J. Winant: Intermolecular energy transfer in the bioluminescent system of Aequorea . In: Biochemistry . Volume 13, No. 12, 1974, pp. 2656-2662; PMID 4151620 ; doi: 10.1021 / bi00709a028
  9. ^ O. Shimomura: Structure of the chromophore of Aequorea green fluorescent protein . In: FEBS Lett . Volume 104, No. 2, 1979, pp. 220-222; doi: 10.1016 / 0014-5793 (79) 80818-2
  10. ↑ Tsutomu Shimomura, John Markoff: Data Zone. dtv, ISBN 3-423-20086-3 (German edition) - a short description of his parents' house p. 68 f.
  11. ↑ SMSI Awards 2005. State Microscopical Society of Illinois, accessed on 16 April 2017 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Shimomura, Osamu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 下 村 脩 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Kyoto , Japan
DATE OF DEATH 19th October 2018
Place of death Nagasaki