Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, Richard Henderson Win Nobelfor Chemistry For Developing Cryo-Electron Microscopy
Scientists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson were awarded the NobelChemistry Prize today for cryo-electron microscopy, a simpler and better method for imaging tiny, frozen molecules.
Thanks to their team’s new “cool method”, involving electron beams to photograph bits of cells, “researcherscan now routinely produce three-dimensional structures of biomolecules”, the Nobel chemistry committee said.
Scientists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson won the Nobel Chemistry Prize today for the development of cryo-electron microscopy, a method of simplifying and improving the imaging of biomolecules.
Thanks to their discovery, "researchers can now routinely produce three-dimensional structures of biomolecules", the Nobel chemistry committee said in a statement.
“This method has moved biochemistry into a new era,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement awarding the 9 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million) prize.
“Researchers can now freeze biomolecules mid-movement and visualise processes they have never previously seen, which is decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals.”
Chemistry is the third of this year’s Nobel Prizes after the winners of the medicine and physics prizes were announced earlier this week.
The prizes are named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will. Reuters
