Why crowning the protein that makes jellyfish glow green as a model can help scientists streamline biology

Originally published by Marc Zimmer, The Conversation, on March 1, 2026

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Alexander Pol


Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Fruit flies, mice, zebrafish, yeast, and the tiny worm C. elegans are model organisms that have carried modern biology on their backs.

Scientists did not choose them for their charisma. They were chosen because their similarities illuminate biological principles across many species. Their biology is simple enough for researchers to master yet deep enough to keep delivering new insights centuries later.

But biologists don't have a common reference point for a vast area of the field: proteins, the cell's doers. Proteins catalyze chemical reactions, give cells their structure, and help them communicate with each other. Most organisms use tens of thousands of protein types, and each can be mutated, modified, and measured in different ways and in countless environments. Thanks in part to artificial intelligence, researchers are also generating new proteins faster than they can study them.

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