Douglas C. Prasher (born August 1951) is an American molecular biologist. He is known for copying and mapping the genes for the photoprotein aequorin and green fluorescent protein (GFP), as well as suggesting that GFP could be used as a tracer molecule. He shared his early research with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien, but by 1991, he could not get more research money and left his job in academia. Eventually, he had to stop doing science. Chalfie and Tsien were given the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work they said was mostly based on Prasher's research. Because of their work and others, he started doing scientific research again in June 2010.

Career

Douglas Prasher earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Ohio State University in 1979. From 1979 to 1983, he worked at the University of Georgia, studying genetics and biochemistry. During this time, he discovered the gene sequence for aequorin, a protein found in jellyfish. In 1983, he joined the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, where he researched bioluminescence, the ability of some organisms to produce light.

In 1988, Prasher received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to clone the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP), the protein that makes jellyfish glow. He completed this project successfully and later shared his findings with scientists Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien after they contacted him.

Reports that Prasher struggled to make GFP glow in other species during experiments were incorrect. He worked with the Chalfie group to show that GFP could be made to glow in bacteria (E. coli), a type of worm (C. elegans), and a plant (Arabidopsis thaliana). By the time his grant ended, Prasher had isolated a nearly complete version of the gfp gene, missing only 85 bases out of 1,050. To create a full version, he would have needed to build another DNA library the following year, but he could not afford to do so. This partial DNA copy was later used successfully in experiments with E. coli, C. elegans, and A. thaliana.

Prasher applied for funding from the National Institutes of Health but was denied. When he was reviewed for a promotion, he decided to leave academia. He later worked as a population geneticist for the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in Massachusetts and Maryland. After a mild heart attack, he joined a NASA subcontractor, AZ Technology, in Alabama, where he worked on devices to monitor space environments and human health during long space missions. He lost his job in 2000 when NASA canceled the project.

On October 8, 2008, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien for their work on GFP. Prasher was not included because only three people can share a Nobel Prize. Chalfie said Prasher’s work was “critical and essential” for their research, and Tsien agreed that Prasher’s contributions were vital.

In October 2008, Prasher told National Public Radio and Inside Edition that he had trouble finding a science job, had used up his savings, and was working as a shuttle bus driver for a Toyota dealership in Huntsville, earning $8.50 per hour. A former colleague called his situation a “staggering waste of talent.” Prasher expressed happiness for the Nobel laureates and said he hoped to return to science, though not specifically with jellyfish.

Chalfie and Tsien invited Prasher and his wife, Virginia Eckenrode, to the Nobel Prize ceremony as their guests. All three laureates thanked Prasher in their speeches.

In June 2010, Prasher returned to science, working at Streamline Automation in Huntsville until December 2011. From 2012 to 2015, he worked in Roger Tsien’s lab at the University of California, San Diego.

Publications

• Prasher, D., McCann, R.O., Cormier, M.J. "Cloning and expression of the cDNA coding for aequorin, a bioluminescent calcium-binding protein". Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. , 126 , 1259-1268 (1985).
• Richard, J.P., Prasher, D.C., Ives, D.H., Frey, P.A. "Chiral [O]phosphorothioates. The stereochemical course of thiophosphoryl group transfer catalyzed by nucleoside phosphotransferase". J. Biol. Chem. , 254 (11), 4339-4341 (1979).
• Prasher, D.C., Carr, M.C., Ives, D.H., Tsai, T.C., Frey, P.A. "Nucleoside phosphotransferase from barley. Characterization and evidence for ping pong kinetics involving phosphoryl enzyme". J. Biol. Chem. , 257 (9), 4931-4939 (1982).
• Prasher, D.C., Conarro, L., Kushner, S.R. "Amplification and purification of exonuclease I from Escherichia coli K12". J. Biol. Chem. , 258 (10), 6340-6343 (1983).
• Prasher, D.C., McCann, R.O., Longiaru, M., Cormier, M.J. "Sequence comparisons of complementary DNAs encoding aequorin isotypes". Biochemistry , 26 (5), 1326-1332 (1987).
• Phillips, G.J., Prasher, D.C., Kushner, S.R. "Physical and biochemical characterization of cloned sbcB and xonA mutations from Escherichia coli K-12". J. Bacteriol., 170 (5), 2089-2094 (1988).
• Cormier, M.J., Prasher, D.C., Longiaru, M., McCann, R.O. "The enzymology and molecular biology of the Ca2+-activated photoprotein, aequorin". Photochem. Photobiol. , 49 (4), 509-512 (1989).
• Prasher, D.C., O'Kane, D., Lee, J., Woodward, B. "The lumazine protein gene in Photobacterium phosphoreum is linked to the lux operon". Nucleic Acids Res ., 18 (21),