N. Elmehed. © Nobel Media 2017
The discovery of a way to see complex biological molecules in atomic resolution has won this year’s Nobel prize in Chemistry. The award has gone to Richard Henderson, Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank for developing cryo-electron microscopy, which cools down substances to liquid nitrogen temperatures.
Their techniques have recently let us see in unprecedented detail the surface of the Zika virus, bacterial proteins that cause antibiotic resistance, and tumour cell proteins that let cancers become resistant to chemotherapy.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
Previous electron microscopes were less useful, partly because they need the sample to be placed in a vacuum. This causes surrounding water to evaporate, and the molecules being studied collapse and lose their normal structure. Electron microscopes were also , because they work by firing a beam of electrons at the sample..
Advertisement
Richard Henderson of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, found a way to protect biomolecules by coating their surface with a glucose solution that stopped it from drying out in the vacuum. In 1975 his team produced the best picture of a protein ever made with an electron microscope, with their imaging of a bacterial molecule called bacteriorhodopsin, showing how it crossed the cell membrane seven times.
Joachim Frank of Columbia University in New York developed an image-processing method that merges many two-dimensional images of a biomolecules to create a sharp three-dimensional picture.
And Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland developed a technique for vitrifying water – cooling it down so quickly that it solidifies in liquid form around the biomolecule, so it keeps its normal shape, even in a vacuum.
Together the work of all three led to a burgeoning new field. At first the images produced, though useful, were somewhat shapeless – leading cryo-electron microscopy to be dubbed “blobology”. But numerous refinements over the years has made the resulting images sharper than ever, producing a stream of new discoveries about life’s most complex and intricate machinary.
More on these topics: