Illustration of the Japanese chemist and marine biologist Osamu Shimomura (1928-2018). Shimomura is best known for his work in bioluminescence. In the 1960s he discovered green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, which glows green when illuminated with ultraviolet light. GFP has subsequently been widely used as a research tool in biology and medicine. The gene coding for it can be tagged to the genes of other proteins or viruses to study their movements within cells. They can also be used to tag cancer cells to track their spread through the body. Shimomura received a share of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y Tsien for the discovery and development of GFP.