Douglas C. Prasher (born August 1951) is an American
molecular biologist
Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
the
genes
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
for the
photoprotein Photoproteins are a type of enzyme produced by bioluminescent organisms. They add to the function of the luciferins whose usual light-producing reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme luciferase.
History
The term photoprotein was first used to descr ...
aequorin
Aequorin is a calcium-activated photoprotein isolated from the hydrozoan ''Aequorea victoria''. Its bioluminescence was studied decades before the protein was isolated from the animal by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. In the animal, the protein occur ...
and
green fluorescent protein
The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a protein that exhibits green fluorescence when exposed to light in the blue to ultraviolet range. The label ''GFP'' traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the jellyfish ''Aequorea victo ...
(GFP) and for his proposal to use GFP as a tracer molecule. He communicated his pioneering work to
Martin Chalfie
Martin Lee Chalfie (born January 15, 1947) is an American scientist. He is University Professor at Columbia University. He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien "for the discovery and develop ...
and
Roger Y. Tsien
Roger Yonchien Tsien (Chinese: 錢永健'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemi ...
, but by 1991 he was unable to obtain further research funding, and left academia. Eventually, he had to abandon science. Chalfie and Tsien were awarded the 2008
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 outst ...
for work that they publicly acknowledged was substantially based on Prasher's work; through their efforts and those of others, he returned to scientific research in June 2010.
Career
Prasher received his Ph.D. in
biochemistry
Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...
from the
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
in 1979. From 1979 to 1983, he worked in
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...
and biochemistry research at the
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
, where he identified the gene sequence for
aequorin
Aequorin is a calcium-activated photoprotein isolated from the hydrozoan ''Aequorea victoria''. Its bioluminescence was studied decades before the protein was isolated from the animal by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. In the animal, the protein occur ...
. He then joined the Biology Department of the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering.
Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...
,
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 southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 78 ...
where he studied
bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorgani ...
. In 1988, he received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''.
History
The society w ...
to clone the gene for
green fluorescent protein
The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a protein that exhibits green fluorescence when exposed to light in the blue to ultraviolet range. The label ''GFP'' traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the jellyfish ''Aequorea victo ...
(GFP), the protein that gives the
jellyfish
Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...
its glow. Prasher succeeded in this project, and later shared his findings with
Martin Chalfie
Martin Lee Chalfie (born January 15, 1947) is an American scientist. He is University Professor at Columbia University. He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien "for the discovery and develop ...
and
Roger Tsien
Roger Yonchien Tsien (Chinese: 錢永健'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chem ...
after each scientist had communicated with him.
Reports that Prasher had difficulty in achieving fluorescence of GFP in other species in recombinant studies are inaccurate, as Prasher had successfully worked with the Chalfie group to show recombinant expression in the bacterium ''
E. coli
''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...
'' and the nematode ''
C. elegans
''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' ( ...
'', and later in the plant ''
Arabidopsis thaliana
''Arabidopsis thaliana'', the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small plant from the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and Africa. Commonly found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land, it is generally ...
''. By the time Prasher's ACS funding ended, he had isolated a partial, but almost complete ''gfp'' cDNA, with 965 bases out of the 1,050 bases of the corresponding mRNA. It would require construction of another cDNA library during the following (non-funded) year for Prasher to isolate a full-length cDNA clone, although this partial cDNA clone was subsequently used and found to be sufficient for successful heterologous expression in ''E. coli'', ''C. elegans'' and ''A. thaliana''. 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 in areas such as fluorescent studies of gene expression.
Prasher had applied to the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
for funding but had been turned down, and by the time he was undergoing review for promotion from assistant to untenured associate, he had decided to leave academia. Subsequently, Prasher worked for the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service,
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production ...
at its Otis Plant Protection Center in
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...
as a
population geneticist
Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and among populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and popula ...
, and was later transferred to the Plant Germplasm Quarantine & Biotechnology Laboratory in
Beltsville, Maryland
Beltsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The community was named for Truman Belt, a local landowner. The 2020 census counted 20,133 residents. Beltsville includes the unincorporate ...
. After a mild heart attack, he went to work for
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
subcontractor AZ Technology in
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
, working on an existing project to develop hand-held devices to monitor cabin environment and to perform human diagnostics during long-term spaceflight. A year and a half later, he lost his job when NASA reorganized and canceled the project.
On 8 October 2008, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to
Osamu Shimomura
was a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and professor emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for ...
, Chalfie, and Tsien for their work on GFP. Prasher was not included among the Nobel laureates, as only three individuals can share in a single Nobel Prize. Chalfie said of Prasher's contribution: "(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
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
(NPR) and October 14, 2008 TV interview with ''
Inside Edition
''Inside Edition'' is an American tabloid television program that is distributed in Broadcast syndication, first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine progr ...
'', Prasher reported that he was unable to find a job in science, his life savings had run out, and he was working as a courtesy shuttle bus driver for a Toyota dealership in Huntsville 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 stated his wish to resume a career in science but not particularly with jellyfish. He also expressed his pleasure at learning of the Nobel Prize awarded 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.
In June 2010, Prasher was finally able to return to science, working for Streamline Automation in Huntsville until December 2011, and then from 2012 to 2015 in Tsien's lab at the University of California in San Diego.
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">SUP>18Ohosphorothioates. 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).
See also
*
Nobel Prize controversies
Since the first award in 1901, conferment of the Nobel Prize has engendered criticismTerraSig blog, Nobel Prize heartbreak - Dr Douglas Prasher