COMMENT OBITUARY Roger Yonchien Tsien (1952–2016) Creator of a rainbow of fluorescent probes that lit up biology.
oger Yonchien Tsien pioneered He took great pleasure in naming probes the use of light and colour to ‘peek after fruits such as the tomato, cherry and and poke’ at living cells to see how plum. Rthey work. His most famous achievement, GFP variants are now ubiquitous in bio- recognized by a share of the Nobel Prize in logical research. They can be used to bind Chemistry in 2008, transformed biology: he with and track cancer cells, aid gene therapy, developed a rainbow of probes, based on the image mitosis, paint neurons in rainbow jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP), to colours and spy on signalling in subcellular illuminate cell structure and function. organelles such as mitochondria. They have Roger died suddenly in a park near his even been used to make art. home in Oregon on 24 August. He was born Roger’s group at UCSD developed in New York in 1952 with science in his many other optical probes, including fast- blood. His father’s cousin was Tsien Hsue- response sensors to measure electrical COMMONS MOTZKAU/WIKIPEDIA/WIKIMEDIA HOLGER shen (Qian Xuesen), architect of China’s signals across cell membranes, and dyes missile and space programme. Roger would for tracking proteins with a combina- combine his father’s engineering talent with tion of light and electron microscopy. In the medical interests of his mother, a nurse. recent years, he had two main projects: the Roger had an early passion for chemistry. design of fluorescent tracers to illuminate Despite his Chinese name (which means tumours during cancer surgery; and the ‘always healthy’), childhood asthma often storage of long-term memory by the pat- kept him indoors, reading and drawing. tern of holes in the perineuronal net that He fought going to kindergarten until his surrounds neurons in the brain. teacher allowed him to bring in a favourite Roger’s trajectory helped to make it book: he picked All about the Wonders of respectable, indeed fashionable, to spend a Chemistry. From the age of eight, he per- Berkeley, where colleagues encouraged him career inventing reagents and methods. He formed increasingly complex and some- to create more tools. First came superior is named in more than 160 US patents, often times hazardous chemistry experiments at calcium dyes, in particular fura2, which is as lead inventor. Although naturally keen to home. At 16, he went to Harvard University strongly excited by different wavelengths participate in the first application of his new in Cambridge, Massachusetts (avoiding of ultraviolet light before and after binding tools, he was also generous in providing the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- calcium. Capitalizing on this feature of fura2 materials to other scientists. ogy, where his father, uncles and broth- (and indicators with similar optical proper- Roger co-founded three biotech compa- ers studied), and sampled many subjects. ties), Roger and his group made it much nies that capitalized on his inventions. He Ironically he found the chemistry courses easier to monitor calcium under challenging semi-seriously quipped to his wife Wendy “so distasteful” that he abandoned them for conditions, for example, across the width of a that, apart from the potential human benefit, neurobiology. cell. His group also created valuable fluores- the main point of these companies was to Roger then spent nine years at the cent sensors for pH and for sodium. provide suitable jobs for his postdocs. Physiological Laboratory at the University of In 1989, facing resource constraints, Roger Roger was a fine pianist and briefly Cambridge, UK. First he was a PhD student transferred to the University of California, considered a musical career. A gifted ama- with the eminent muscle physiologist Rich- San Diego (UCSD). Here he remained for teur photographer — a hobby in keeping ard Adrian; then he did a postdoc with one the rest of his career. He wanted to make with his passion for colour and imaging — of us (T.J.R.). He emerged as an ingenious, sensors that could be genetically encoded, he enjoyed holidays in the wild outdoors, largely self-taught synthetic chemist. allowing researchers to target specific cell often taking arduous treks, camera in hand. Much of Roger’s early work was directed types without having to inject a tracer. In the Roger will be hugely missed by family, at imaging neural activity, by trying to 1990s, he saw the potential of GFP. The pro- friends, colleagues and the many scientists develop tracers of sodium- or calcium-ion tein had been isolated from jellyfish in the who appreciated him as a brilliant enabler movements that support brain signalling. 1960s by Osamu Shimomura (who shared of scientific progress. ■ By 1980, he had invented quin2, a synthetic the 2008 Nobel) and cloned by Douglas fluorescent dye that selectively binds to Prasher in 1992. Martin Chalfie, who also Timothy J. Rink is an independent calcium, and had devised a clever way to shared in the Nobel, first used GFP to image biotechnology consultant. He worked with sneak this dye and other probes into intact living cells in 1994. Roger Tsien at Cambridge. Louis Y. Tsien is cells. This first practical probe for calcium Roger’s lab pioneered the development Roger’s elder brother and lives in Watertown, found wide early use in studies of intracel- of GFP variants. Through a combination of Massachusetts. Richard W. Tsien is Roger’s lular calcium signalling. rational design and random mutagenesis, eldest brother and a neuroscientist at New Amazingly, Roger struggled to find a they created dozens of bright fluorescent York University, New York, USA. faculty position because his work straddled proteins of various colours based on GFP. e-mails: [email protected]; disciplines. In 1982, he joined the physiology Roger later produced longer-wavelength [email protected]; department at the University of California, sensors based on red fluorescent proteins. [email protected]
172 | NATURE | VOL 538 | 13 OCTOBER©2016 2016Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.