| 1977 | Ph.D. in Physiology, University of Cambridge |
| | until 1981 Research Fellow, University of Cambridge |
| 1981 | First Assistant, Associate, then full Professor, University of California, Berkeley |
| 1989 | Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor, Departments of Pharmacology and of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego |
| 1996 | Scientific Co-founder, Aurora Biosciences Corporation, which went public in 1997 |
| 1998 | Scientific Co-founder, Senomyx Inc., which went public in 2004 |
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| | Dr. Tsien is best known for designing and building molecules that either report or perturb signal transduction inside living cells. These molecules, created by organic synthesis or by engineering naturally fluorescent proteins, have enabled many new insights into signaling via calcium, sodium, pH, cyclic nucleotides, nitric oxide, inositol polyphosphates, membrane and redox potential changes, protein phosphorylation, active export of proteins from the nucleus, and gene transcription. He is now developing new ways to target contrast agents and therapeutic agents to tumor cells and atherosclerotic plaques based on their expression of extracellular proteases. |
