The Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2017

2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

  • On 4th October, 2017 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2017 to Jacques Dubochet , Switzerland, Joachim Frank, USA and Richard Henderson, UK.
  • They are awarded for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.
  • Prize amount: 9 million Swedish krona, to be shared equally between the Laureates.

About their work

  • 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.
  • 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 – 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.

About Nobel Prize in Chemistry

  • The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
    Awarded to 178 Nobel Laureates since 1901.
  • 1 person, Frederick Sanger, has been awarded the Chemistry Prize twice, in 1958 and in 1980.
  • 35 years was the age of the youngest Chemistry Laureate ever, Frédéric Joliot, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1935.

Reference:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2017/press.html
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/