The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 - Cool Microscope Technology Revolutionises Biochemistry

STOCKHOLM, Oct. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- We may soon have detailed images of life's complex machineries in atomic resolution. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 is awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for the development of cryo-electron microscopy, which both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules. This method has moved biochemistry into a new era.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 to

Jacques Dubochet, University of Lausanne, Switzerland,

Joachim Frank, Columbia University, New York, USA

and

Richard Henderson, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK

"For developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution"

A picture is a key to understanding. Scientific breakthroughs often build upon the successful visualisation of objects invisible to the human eye. However, biochemical maps have long been filled with blank spaces because the available technology has had difficulty generating images of much of life's molecular machinery. Cryo-electron microscopy changes all of this. 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.

Electron microscopes were long believed to only be suitable for imaging dead matter, because the powerful electron beam destroys biological material. But in 1990, Richard Henderson succeeded in using an electron microscope to generate a three-dimensional image of a protein at atomic resolution. This breakthrough proved the technology's potential.

Joachim Frank made the technology generally applicable. Between 1975 and 1986 he developed an image processing method in which the electron microscope's fuzzy two-dimensional images are analysed and merged to reveal a sharp three-dimensional structure.

Jacques Dubochet added water to electron microscopy. Liquid water evaporates in the electron microscope's vacuum, which makes the biomolecules collapse. In the early 1980s, Dubochet succeeded in vitrifying water - he cooled water so rapidly that it solidified in its liquid form around a biological sample, allowing the biomolecules to retain their natural shape even in a vacuum.

Following these discoveries, the electron microscope's every nut and bolt has been optimised. The desired atomic resolution was reached in 2013, and researchers can now routinely produce three-dimensional structures of biomolecules. In the past few years, scientific literature has been filled with images of everything from proteins that cause antibiotic resistance, to the surface of the Zika virus. Biochemistry is now facing an explosive development and is all set for an exciting future.    

More information, scientific background and illustrations free to use for editorial use, with the given credentials, can be found at:

www.kva.se/nobelchemistry2017

The Laureates

Jacques Dubochet, born 1942 in Aigle, Switzerland. Ph.D. 1973, University of Geneva and University of Basel, Switzerland; Honorary Professor of Biophysics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Jacques Dubochet, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Joachim Frank, born 1940 in Siegen, Germany. Ph.D. 1970, Technical University of Munich, Germany; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, USA.  

Joachim Frank, Columbia University, New York, USA

Richard Henderson, born 1945 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Ph.D. 1969, Cambridge University, UK; Programme Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. 

Richard Henderson, Cambridge, Storbritannien

Prize amount: 9 million Swedish krona, to be shared equally between the Laureates.

Press Contact:
Jessica Balksjö Nannini
Press officer
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
[email protected]
+46-8-673-95-44, +46-70-673-96-50

Experts

Peter Brzezinski
member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
[email protected]
+46-70-609-26-42

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

Nobel Prize® and the Nobel Prize® medal design mark are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.

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SOURCE Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien