Shuttle driver who missed a Nobel prize

From The Huntsville Times:
"The Huntsville resident devoted his early career to studying the mysterious Aequoria Victoria jellyfish, correctly theorizing the green fluorescent protein that gives the jellyfish its glow could be used to highlight molecular functions that would otherwise be invisible to scientists. In 1988, the American Cancer Society gave Prasher a $220,000 grant to try to isolate and copy the gene responsible for the jellyfish's glow.

He eventually succeeded, but the grant money ran out.

When fellow scientist Martin Chalfie of Columbia University called in the early 1990s looking for a copy of the gene, Prasher gave it to him. He also gave a copy to Roger Tsien, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego.

"I could have hung onto the gene," Prasher said during his lunch break Thursday. "But when you're in that environment and losing public funds, you've got an obligation to share. I gave it away, and they took it and ran with it."

Did they ever. On Wednesday, Chalfie, Tsien and the man who discovered green fluorescent protein in the early 1960s, Osamu Shimomura, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for helping turn the substance into a vital biotechnology tool. They will split $1.4 million in prize money."
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