TRIO IMAGING MOLECULES OF LIFE AWARDED NOBEL PRIZE

NEW DELHI: The Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, Michael Henderson on Wednesday.

This year’s prize was awarded for developing a “cool method of imaging the molecules of life.”

The other scientists who were viewed as strong contenders were Lithium–ion battery inventors Stanley Whittingham and John Goodenough, bio-inorganic chemistry pioneers Harry Gray and Stephen Lippard, Chemical engineer Jens Nørskov from Stanford University, Tsutomu Miyasaka from Japan, Nam-gyu Park from South Korea and Henry Snaith from the UK, who discovered perovskites and their use in solar cells. Hybrid organic– inorganic perovskite crystals are used in semi conductors and improve the efficiency of solar cells.

The group of scientists consisting of Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Feng Zhang for their work on gene-editing technology CRISPR.

The CRISPR, gene-editing technology is viewed as revolutionary because it allows scientists to edit genes with unprecedented ease.

No Indian citizen has won the Nobel prize in Chemistry.

In 2009, an Indian-born, structural biologist, Venkatraman ‘’Venky’’ Ramakrishnan, won the prize for his work in ribosomal structure.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made the announcement on Wednesday.

The Chemistry award has now been awarded 109 times, and only one laureate, Frederick Sanger, a British biochemist, has won the prestigious award twice in 1950 and 1980.