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The buzz: jellyfish protein a tool vs mosquitoes

Marc Zimmer, Barbara Zaccheo Kohn ´72 Professor of Chemistry, with two handfuls of jellyfish.

July 12, 2006

As summer heats up, it´s a great time to ponder: What if you could sterilize male mosquitoes so that when they mate with females there are no offspring? Could you really do that?

Yes, says Marc Zimmer, Barbara Zaccheo Kohn ´72 Professor of Chemistry, by genetically modifying mosquitoes with a jellyfish protein.

Toward that end, Zimmer and his undergraduate students are analyzing tons of data that examines the 7,000 atoms in one molecule of green fluorescent protein. Supporting this work is a recent $149,504 award given to Zimmer by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his project, "Modeling Fluorescent and Tracer Proteins." It extends for another three years work begun in 1999.

Zimmer and his students study calculations generated by a bank of computers and a stack of another 32 that examine, for example, what happens and why when one changes some atoms in the protein. "Of course, as soon as you know something, then you are looking for something else," said Zimmer, whose book, Glowing Genes: A Revolution in Biotechnology, (Prometheus, 2005,) is the first popular science book on jellyfish and firefly proteins. "Fluorescent protein is an instrument, a tool. It is the microscope of this century - with a better lens."

Previously, the study of proteins and their atoms was performed by injecting them with radioactivity. The isolation of green fluorescent protein replaced that hazardous work by allowing it to be placed in back of other proteins, lighting up the proteins being studied and allowing scientists to track the proteins´ actions. It is being used to label human cancer cells that are injected in mice so that scientists can watch in real time how the cells move and what kind of effect certain drugs have on them.

Zimmer and his students are researching what makes the fluorescent protein green and whether it can fluoresce in other colors. "We also want to know if fluorescent protein can be made to give off more light and more quickly," he said.

"Every week there are thousands of [scientific] papers published about this protein," he said. "Our work adds to that knowledge."

The NIH grant is 100 percent federally funded.

Learn more about Zimmer´s research and green fluorescent protein at his GFP website.

For more information contact: Amy Sullivan (860) 439-2526; amy.sullivan@conncoll.edu