Glen Spectra and Omega Optical Inc
are delighted to be associated with one of the 2008 Nobel Prize
recipients for Chemistry, Dr Roger Y Tsien. The Prize for Chemistry
was awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y Tsien
for their discovery and development of green fluorescent protein
(GFP).
Dr Tsien, University of California San Diego, worked on expanding
the range of the fluorescence proteins and, in collaboration with
Omega Optical, developed specific optical filters to view his new
dyes. This collaboration grew into what are now Omega Optical’s
stock fluorescence filters. Fluorescent proteins are increasingly
popular because of their usefulness in live cell imaging applications,
but a scientist conducting an examination of cellular structure
needs more than just a fluorescent protein to label the sample.
The right filters, manufactured by Omega Optical and supplied in
the UK by Glen Spectra are just as critical as a sophisticated light
microscope.
While Shimomura and Chalfie extracted GFP from jellyfish and showed
how it can be used as a tracer molecule, Tsien was the one responsible
for understanding how GFP works and for developing new techniques
and mutants of GFP. Dr Tsien was cited by the Nobel Prize committee
for contributing “to our general understanding of how GFP
fluoresces”. Dr Tsien’s lab at UCSD has described ten
new protein clones in the scientific literature, known by their
colourful fruity names – mHoneydew, mCherry, mBanana, to name
a few. Glen Spectra offer these prize winning filter sets for a
total of 35 proteins.
Glen Spectra have represented Omega Optical Inc here in the UK
for over 20 years and have offered the same high quality filters
and service to researchers in the life sciences during this period.
For further information please contact Ken Norris on telephone
number 020 8204 9517, email address ken.norris@glenspectra.co.uk