3 researchers win for imaging molecule matters
STOCKHOLM — Three researchers based in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing a way to create exquisitely detailed images of the molecules driving life — a technology that the Nobel committee said allows scientists to visualize molecular processes they had never previously seen.
The $1.1 million prize is shared by Switzerland’s Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne, German-born U.S. citizen Joachim Frank of New York’s Columbia University and Briton Richard Henderson of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their method, called cryo-electron microscopy, allows researchers to “freeze biomolecules” mid-movement. That technology is akin to “the Google Earth for molecules,” said American Chemical Society President Allison Campbell.
“This discovery allows the scientist to zoom in down to the fine detail (giving) that fine resolution that you want to have,” she said. “Having all the exquisite detail just gives you a wealth of information about that protein molecule and how it is interacting with its environment.”
Nobel chemistry committee member Heiner Linke added: “It’s the first time that we can see biological molecules in their natural environment and how they actually work together down to the individual atoms.”
The Nobel committee praised the technology for being “decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals.”
For instance, the academy said the technique was used when scientists began suspecting the Zika virus was causing the epidemic of brain-damaged children in Brazil. Images of the virus allowed researchers to “start searching for potential targets” for Zika drugs.
Just a few years ago, electron microscope images of proteins resembled blobs. Now they can show intricately intertwined strands.
Frank said he was “fully overwhelmed” and speechless upon hearing he had won.
Speaking in Cambridge, England, Henderson said he felt “the three of us have been awarded the prize acting on behalf of the entire field.”
It’s the third Nobel announced this week.
The medicine prize went to three Americans studying circadian rhythms: Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young. The physics prize went to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne for detecting gravitational waves.