FACTBOX - Nobel Chemistry Prize -- Who are the winners

(Reuters) - Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y Tsien shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein GFP.

Here are some details about the winners:

* WHAT IS GFP:

-- The green fluorescent protein, GFP, has functioned in the past decade as a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers. Its strong green colour appears under blue and ultraviolet light.

-- It can, for example, illuminate growing cancer tumours; show the development of Alzheimer's disease in the brain or the growth of pathogenic bacteria.

-- An even more interesting use of GFP means that researchers can follow processes inside individual cells.

-- The body consists of billions of cells, from pumping heart muscle cells and insulin-producing beta cells to macrophages that destroy unwelcome bacteria. The more researchers know about a cell type, how it develops and functions, the greater the chance that they can develop effective drugs with minimal side-effects.

* WHO ARE THE WINNERS?

-- Osamu Shimomura was the first person to isolate GFP and to find out which part of GFP was responsible for its fluorescence. Shimomura was born in Kyoto in 1928 and was a scientist at Princeton when he discovered GFP in 1962. For 20 years starting in 1967, Shimomura made a summer pilgrimage to Friday Harbor in Washington state to gather more than 3,000 jellyfish per day. He is presently professor emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, and Boston University Medical School in the United States.