Douglas Prasher
Encyclopedia
Douglas C. Prasher is an American molecular biologist. He is known for his work to clone and sequence
the gene
for green fluorescent protein
(GFP) and for his proposal to use GFP as a tracer molecule.
from the Ohio State University
in 1979. From 1979 to 1983, he worked in genetics
and biochemistry research at the University of Georgia
, where he identified aequorin
. He then joined the Biology Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
where he studied bioluminescence
. In 1988, he received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the American Cancer Society
to try to clone the gene for green fluorescent protein
(GFP), the protein that gives the jellyfish
its "glow". Prasher succeeded in this project, and later shared his findings with Martin Chalfie
and Roger Y. Tsien
after each scientist had communicated with him. In subsequent years, Prasher provided the clone to hundreds of scientists.
Reports that Prasher had difficulty in achieving fluorescence of GFP in other species in recombinant studies, were inaccurate. By the time Prasher's ACS funding ended, he had isolated only a partial gfp cDNA. It would require construction of another cDNA library during the following (non-funded) year for Prasher to isolate a full-length cDNA clone. By this time Prasher could not afford to devote limited resources to expression studies in E. coli. It wasn't until the Nobel Prize announcement that it became clear how unfortunate this had been. Chalfie and Tsien went on to their successful expression studies. GFP has subsequently found application as a biochemical tracer such as in fluorescent studies on DNA.
Prasher had applied to the National Institutes of Health
for funding but had been turned down, and by the time he was undergoing tenure review, he had decided to leave academia. Subsequently, Prasher worked for the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture at its Otis Plant Protection Center in Cape Cod, Massachusetts as a population geneticist, and was later transferred to the Plant Germplasm Quarantine & Biotechnology Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland
. After working conditions deteriorated at the Beltsville location, he went to work for NASA
subcontractor AZ Technology in Huntsville, Alabama
working on an existing project to develop lab-on-a-chip devices to monitor cabin environment and to perform human diagnostics during long-term spaceflight. However, he lost his job after 1.5 years when NASA reorganized and canceled the project.
On 8 October 2008, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
was awarded to Osamu Shimomura
, Chalfie, and Tsien for their work on GFP. Prasher was not included among the Nobel laureates, as only 3 individuals can share in a single Nobel Prize. Chalfie said of Prasher's contribution:
Tsien also agreed that they couldn't have done it without Prasher and "Doug Prasher had a very important role."
In an October 9, 2008 phone interview with National Public Radio (NPR) and October 14, 2008 TV interview with Inside Edition
, Prasher reported that he was unable to find a job in science, his life savings had run out and that he was working as a courtesy shuttle bus driver for Bill Penney Toyota in Huntsville
, Alabama
at $8.50 an hour. In the NPR broadcast, one of his former colleagues called Prasher's current situation a "staggering waste of talent." Prasher has stated his wish to resume a career in science, but not particularly with jellyfish. He has publicly expressed his pleasure at learning of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien:
Chalfie and Tsien invited Prasher and his wife, Virginia Eckenrode, to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony, as their guests and at their expense. All three of the 2008 Chemistry laureates thanked Prasher in their speeches. At the end of 'Nobel Week', students at Stockholm University
traditionally bring the chemistry laureates 'back down to earth' at the St Lucia Banquet where they are enrolled into The Order of the Ever-Smiling and Jumping Green Frog. The students set tradition aside by also enrolling Prasher into The Order.
In June 2010, Prasher was finally able to return to science as a Senior Scientist for a small contract research firm, Streamline Automation, LLC, in Huntsville.
DNA sequencing
DNA sequencing includes several methods and technologies that are used for determining the order of the nucleotide bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine—in a molecule of DNA....
the gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
for green fluorescent protein
Green fluorescent protein
The green fluorescent protein is a protein composed of 238 amino acid residues that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue light. Although many other marine organisms have similar green fluorescent proteins, GFP traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the...
(GFP) and for his proposal to use GFP as a tracer molecule.
Career
Prasher received his Ph.D. in BiochemistryBiochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
from the Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
in 1979. From 1979 to 1983, he worked in genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
and biochemistry research at the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
, where he identified aequorin
Aequorin
Aequorin is a photoprotein isolated from luminescent jellyfish and a variety of other marine organisms...
. He then joined the Biology Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of all aspects of marine science and engineering and to the education of marine researchers. Established in 1930, it is the largest independent oceanographic research...
, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands...
where he studied bioluminescence
Bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in...
. In 1988, he received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the American Cancer Society
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
to try to clone the gene for green fluorescent protein
Green fluorescent protein
The green fluorescent protein is a protein composed of 238 amino acid residues that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue light. Although many other marine organisms have similar green fluorescent proteins, GFP traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the...
(GFP), the protein that gives the jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
its "glow". Prasher succeeded in this project, and later shared his findings with Martin Chalfie
Martin Chalfie
Martin Chalfie is an American scientist. He is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, where he is also chair of the department of biological sciences. He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien "for the...
and Roger Y. Tsien
Roger Y. Tsien
Roger Yonchien Tsien is a Chinese American biochemist and a professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego...
after each scientist had communicated with him. In subsequent years, Prasher provided the clone to hundreds of scientists.
Reports that Prasher had difficulty in achieving fluorescence of GFP in other species in recombinant studies, were inaccurate. By the time Prasher's ACS funding ended, he had isolated only a partial gfp cDNA. It would require construction of another cDNA library during the following (non-funded) year for Prasher to isolate a full-length cDNA clone. By this time Prasher could not afford to devote limited resources to expression studies in E. coli. It wasn't until the Nobel Prize announcement that it became clear how unfortunate this had been. Chalfie and Tsien went on to their successful expression studies. GFP has subsequently found application as a biochemical tracer such as in fluorescent studies on DNA.
Prasher had applied to the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
for funding but had been turned down, and by the time he was undergoing tenure review, he had decided to leave academia. Subsequently, Prasher worked for the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture at its Otis Plant Protection Center in Cape Cod, Massachusetts as a population geneticist, and was later transferred to the Plant Germplasm Quarantine & Biotechnology Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland
Beltsville, Maryland
Beltsville is a census-designated place in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,691 at the 2000 census. Beltsville includes the unincorporated community of Vansville.-Geography:...
. After working conditions deteriorated at the Beltsville location, he went to work for NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
subcontractor AZ Technology in Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
working on an existing project to develop lab-on-a-chip devices to monitor cabin environment and to perform human diagnostics during long-term spaceflight. However, he lost his job after 1.5 years when NASA reorganized and canceled the project.
On 8 October 2008, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
was awarded to Osamu Shimomura
Osamu Shimomura
is a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University Medical School...
, Chalfie, and Tsien for their work on GFP. Prasher was not included among the Nobel laureates, as only 3 individuals can share in a single Nobel Prize. Chalfie said of Prasher's contribution:
"(Douglas Prasher's) work was critical and essential for the work we did in our lab. They could've easily given the prize to Douglas and the other two and left me out."
Tsien also agreed that they couldn't have done it without Prasher and "Doug Prasher had a very important role."
In an October 9, 2008 phone interview with National Public Radio (NPR) and October 14, 2008 TV interview with Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
, Prasher reported that he was unable to find a job in science, his life savings had run out and that he was working as a courtesy shuttle bus driver for Bill Penney Toyota in Huntsville
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
at $8.50 an hour. In the NPR broadcast, one of his former colleagues called Prasher's current situation a "staggering waste of talent." Prasher has stated his wish to resume a career in science, but not particularly with jellyfish. He has publicly expressed his pleasure at learning of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien:
"I'm really happy for them. I was really surprised that particular topic carried that much weight."
Chalfie and Tsien invited Prasher and his wife, Virginia Eckenrode, to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony, as their guests and at their expense. All three of the 2008 Chemistry laureates thanked Prasher in their speeches. At the end of 'Nobel Week', students at Stockholm University
Stockholm University
Stockholm University is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. It has over 28,000 students at four faculties, making it one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is also frequently regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world...
traditionally bring the chemistry laureates 'back down to earth' at the St Lucia Banquet where they are enrolled into The Order of the Ever-Smiling and Jumping Green Frog. The students set tradition aside by also enrolling Prasher into The Order.
In June 2010, Prasher was finally able to return to science as a Senior Scientist for a small contract research firm, Streamline Automation, LLC, in Huntsville.
Publications
- Prasher, D., McCann, R.O., Cormier, M.J., Cloning and expression of the cDNA coding for aequorin, a bioluminescent calcium-binding protein. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 126, 1259-1268 (1985).
- Richard, J.P., Prasher, D.C., Ives, D.H., Frey, P.A., Chiral [18O]phosphorothioates. The stereochemical course of thiophosphoryl group transfer catalyzed by nucleoside phosphotransferase. J. Biol. Chem., 254(11), 4339-4341 (1979).
- Prasher, D.C., Carr, M.C., Ives, D.H., Tsai, T.C., Frey, P.A., Nucleoside phosphotransferase from barley. Characterization and evidence for ping pong kinetics involving phosphoryl enzyme. J. Biol. Chem., 257(9), 4931-4939 (1982).
- Prasher, D.C., Conarro, L., Kushner, S.R., Amplification and purification of exonuclease I from Escherichia coli K12. J. Biol. Chem., 258(10), 6340-6343 (1983)
- Prasher, D.C., McCann, R.O., Longiaru, M., Cormier, M.J., Sequence comparisons of complementary DNAs encoding aequorin isotypes. Biochemistry, 26(5), 1326-1332 (1987).
- Phillips, G.J., Prasher, D.C., Kushner, S.R., Physical and biochemical characterization of cloned sbcB and xonA mutations from Escherichia coli K-12. J. Bacteriol., 170(5), 2089-2094 (1988).
- Cormier, M.J., Prasher, D.C., Longiaru, M., McCann, R.O., The enzymology and molecular biology of the Ca2+-activated photoprotein, aequorin. Photochem. Photobiol., 49(4), 509-512 (1989).
- Prasher, D.C., O'Kane, D., Lee, J., Woodward, B., The lumazine protein gene in Photobacterium phosphoreum is linked to the lux operon. Nucleic Acids Res., 18(21), 6450 (1990).
- O'Kane, D.J., Woodward, B., Lee, J., Prasher, D.C., Borrowed proteins in bacterial bioluminescence. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88(4), 1100-1104 (1991).
- O'Kane, D.J., Prasher, D.C., Evolutionary origins of bacterial bioluminescence. Mol. Microbiol., 6(4), 443-449 (1992).
- Prasher, D.C., Eckenrode, V.K., Ward, W.W., Prendergast F.G., Cormier, M.J., Primary structure of the Aequorea victoria green-fluorescent protein. Gene, 111(2), 229-233 (1992).
- Hannick, L.I., Prasher, D.C., Schultz, L.W., Deschamps, J.R., Ward, K.B., Preparation and initial characterization of crystals of the photoprotein aequorin from Aequorea victoria. Proteins, 15(1), 103-107 (1993).
- Cody, C.W., Prasher, D.C., Westler, W.M., Prendergast, F.G., Ward, W.W., Chemical structure of the hexapeptide chromophore of the Aequorea green-fluorescent protein. Biochemistry, 32(5), 1212-1218 (1993).
- Chalfie, M., Tu, Y., Euskirchen, G., Ward, W.W., Prasher, D.C., Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression. Science, 263(5148), 802-805 (1994).
- Heim, R., Prasher, D.C., Tsien, R.Y., Wavelength mutations and posttranslational autoxidation of green fluorescent protein. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91(26), 12501-12504 (1994).
- Prasher, D.C., Using GFP to see the light. Trends Genet., 11(8), 320-323 (1995).
- Haseloff, J., Siemering, K.R., Prasher, D.C., Hodge, S., Removal of a cryptic intron and subcellular localization of green fluorescent protein are required to mark transgenic Arabidopsis plants brightly. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94(6), 2122-2127 (1997).
- Bernon, G., Schander, C., Prasher, D., Robinson, D., Survey and status of terrestrial slugs in North America American Malacological Society Abstracts 2000, 41 (2000).
- Barr, NB, Cook, A., Elder, P., Molongoski , J., Prasher, D., Robinson D.G. Application of a DNA barcode using the 16S rRNA gene to diagnose pest Arion species in the USA. " J. Moll. Stud. 75: 187-191 (2009).
External links
- TerraSig blog, Nobel Prize heartbreak - Dr Douglas Prasher
- In Cites, An interview with Martin Chalfie, Ph.D.
- Davidson College, Green Fluorescent Protein as a Reporter Gene
- The Green Fluorescent Protein or GFP
- The Scientist.com, on-line discussion, "What about Douglas Prasher?"
- Adam Smith, Telephone interview with Martin Chalfie following the Nobel Prize announcement
- Ned Potter, "The Man Who Missed the Nobel Prize". ABC News Blog, Science and Society, 10 October 2008.
- Marc Zimmer, Connecticut College webpage on GFP
- Douglas C. Prasher - Employee Biography - USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service