Sujata Emani works under Professor Roger Tsien at the University of California, San Diego.

Tsien shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with two other researchers for their work discovering and developing green fluorescent proteins from jellyfish.

Emani, 25, is a PhD candidate and started her work at Dr. Tsien's lab in 2006. She tells Channel 3 News the work with luminescent jellyfish was well underway before she arrived, but that she continues to advance the technology.

"I was extremely excited and surprised" at the news of Dr. Tsien's award, she tells Channel 3 News. "Immediately I began to call all my former lab mates who had graduated from our group and also called other family members. Then, I rushed to the grocery store to pick up the best bottle of champagne I could find for Roger!"

Emani graduated from Strongsville High School in 2001, and did her undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. At UC San Diego she is involved in using fluorescent proteins to see how well drug delivery molecules get into cancer cells.

Sujata Emani, who was born in India, is the daughter of Vijaya Emani, a well known leader in the Greater Cleveland Indian community.

WKYC-TV