The Columbia University professor shared the 2008 Nobel with scientists Osamu Shimomura and Roger Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), originally found in jellyfish, which can make cells and organs light up and can be used for tracking specific cell growth.
Chalfie will give a free, public, general-interest talk, GFP: Lighting Up Life, at 1:30 p.m. May 6 in Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium on the Belknap Campus.
UofL’s Chemistry Graduate Student Association sponsors the annual distinguished lecturer series with Clariant.
Chalfie is Columbia’s William Kenan professor and chair of biological sciences. He earned his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and worked in the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where he began his research on nerve cell development and the sense of touch.
Chalfie’s more scientifically oriented talk, “The Molecular Basis of Transducing and Modulating Touch Sensitivity,” will begin at 1:30 p.m. May 5, also in Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium.
For more information, contact Bryan Wessel at 502-852-5973 or b0wess01@louisville.edu.