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A group of biophysicists won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a molecule viewing technique.
Jacques Dubochet [zhahk di-bo-SHEE], Joachim [waa-KEEM] Frank, and Richard Henderson pioneered cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), a procedure that uses electron microscopes to examine frozen molecules in ultrafine resolution. They were able to develop the technology through the many experiments they did over a span of five decades.
The trio received $1.1 million from the Royal Swedish Academy for Sciences, the awarding body for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Electron microscopes were originally used to examine dead substances, as they destroy living matter when placed under its beam, while x-rays were used to view proteins and other complex molecules. However, the invention of cryo-EM paved the way for detailed viewing of tiny molecules such as ribosomes, or cellular structures that decode DNA.
Cryo-EM works by freezing a molecule sample to form a film of ice, which resembles a glass pane, on top of liquid that maintains the shape of molecules. As a result, the changes a molecule undergoes can be monitored. Nobel committee member Peter Brzezinski [bzheh-ZIN-skee] likened the images captured by the cryo-EM to movie frames, as each can be put together to show the processes taking place.
Cryo-EM proved to be beneficial to medical research. In 2016, scientists employed the technique to determine the structure of the Zika virus. A follow-up research for identifying drugs that can fight the virus is also afoot. In addition, cryo-EM has been used to scrutinize proteins that supposedly cause Alzheimer’s disease and other brain-related illnesses.