Out-of-this-world glow-in-the-dark creatures invade Philly

Martin Chalfie to Speak at Research Week at Temple University March 27

2008 Nobel Chemistry Laureate discovered green fluorescent proteins

EDITOR'S NOTE: Photos of Chalfie and other bizarre creatures are available.

MEDIA CONTACT: Paul Statt, Paul Statt Communications, 413-244-7456, paulstatt@paulstatt.com

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 9--Green fluorescent proteins can make goldfish glow in the dark. But that's not why they gave chemist Martin Chalfie the Nobel Prize last year. Chalfie and two colleagues isolated and developed the naturally-occurring green fluorescent protein (GFP) from a jellyfish. The GFP glows green when exposed to blue light, and the gene that makes it has been added to organisms as diverse as bacteria, yeast, insects and even humans, to prove that "alien" genes can be inserted, expressed and passed on. In short, fluorescence is possible in every living thing.

Chalfie, the William R Kenan Jr. Professor of biological sciences at Columbia University, will about "Green Florescent Protein:Lighting Up Life" at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 27, in the Walk Auditorium in Ritter Hall at Temple University. The keynote address of Temple's annual Research Week, sponsored by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Strategic Initiatives, Chalfie's talk is free and open to the public. Research Week, from Monday, March 23 through Friday, March 27, offers lecturers, colloquia, presentations and performances at the university.

Chalfie reports that he hears from hundreds of researchers who describe the out-of-this world potential of GFP:

• GFP was used in ANDi, the first genetically-modeified primate, being used to develop treatments for Huntington's disease ;
  
• GFP is being used in the creation of synthetic life; 
  
• GFP flickers at different temperatures, allowing it to be used as a tiny thermometer
  
• GFP-labelled bacteria can locate mines in minefields.
  

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