Nobel Prize In Chemistry Honors Views Of Human Cells Working At The Atomic Level
Joachim Frank
The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to  researchers Jacques Dubochet  Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson  for  their  work that developed cryo-electron microscopy  which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says "both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules."
Speaking to the prize committee by phone Wednesday morning   Frank  said  he  had thought the chance of  him  winning the prestigious honor was "minuscule."
 He  added that cryo-electron microscopy "is about to completely transform structural biology " saying the technology is being taken up by a new generation of medical researchers.
Dubochet is affiliated with the University of Lausanne  in Switzerland;  Frank  is affiliated with Columbia University in New York; Henderson is affiliated with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge  U.K.
"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 twodimensional 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 â  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."
The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to  researchers Jacques Dubochet   [TGT]  and Richard Henderson  for  their  work that developed cryo-electron microscopy  which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says "both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules."
Speaking to the prize committee by phone Wednesday morning    [TGT] said   [TGT]   had thought the chance of   [TGT]   winning the prestigious honor was "minuscule."
 He  added that cryo-electron microscopy "is about to completely transform structural biology " saying the technology is being taken up by a new generation of medical researchers.
Dubochet is affiliated with the University of Lausanne  in Switzerland;   [TGT] is affiliated with Columbia University in New York; Henderson is affiliated with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge  U.K.
"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. "  [TGT] made the technology generally applicable. Between 1975 and 1986   [TGT]   developed an image processing method in which the electron microscope's fuzzy twodimensional 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 â  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."