Recent Photos from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
2008 Photos
NIH grantees Martin Chalfie
and Roger Y. Tsien shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry with
former grantee Osamu Shimomura for their groundbreaking work
on green fluorescent protein. This naturally glowing protein
found in jellyfish has become a powerful tool for studying molecules
inside living cells. (Image courtesy of Roger Tsien, Univeristy
of California, San Diego)
2007 Photos
This model of the enzyme
nicotinic acid phosphoribosyltransferase is one of more than
2,000 protein structures solved as part of NIGMS’s Protein Structure
Initiative. Although the enzyme is from a bacterium, its amino
acid sequence suggests that it is structurally similar to a clinically
important human protein called B-cell colony enhancing factor.
(Image courtesy of Berkeley Structural Genomics Center)
Hailed as a scientific breakthrough,
NIGMS grantee James Thomson used human skin cells to create ones
that appear to be indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.
In 2007, Thomson and his colleagues reported that they’d
reset the skin cells to the embryonic state by supplying them
with 4 genes, giving them the potential to become any of the
220 cell types in the body. The new technique is expected to
bring stem cells within easier reach of more scientists, providing
them with better models for studying many human diseases and
possibly speeding the advent of cell-based therapies for conditions
such as diabetes and arthritis. This work also was supported
by NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR).
(Image courtesy of Junying Yu, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
This page was last reviewed on
March 16, 2009
.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Department of Health
