my first project after graduation

First, a big congratulations to Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners: Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien ( who contributed to the isolation of Green Fluorescent Protein and found ways to use it as a genetic marker)!

My first project once working full time in a lab was modifying a gene (to put in a mouse) so that all cholinergic cells would glow green. Our lab was interested in cholinergic neurons, specifically in the basal forebrain, because a loss of these neurons is exhibited in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Instead of running experiments on cells and later (using RT-PCR) finding out for sure if it was the right cell (and if that data is useful for this purpose), we could use a fluorescent scope and visually select the glowing cholinergic cells.

Given that, it was a surprise to see this as the second sentence in a New York Times article featuring the Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners:

"The fluorescent proteins are now routinely used for observing the growth and fate of specific cells like nerve cells damaged during Alzheimer’s."