Nobel for Brit who found new weapon in fight against disease

‘Can see down to individual atoms’

A BRITISH scientist won the Nobel Prize for chemistry yesterday for pioneering work that revolutionised medicine.

Richard Henderson, 72, and two colleagues invented a technique that allows scientists to use electron microscopes to examine molecules from living organisms.

Before his work it was thought such microscopes could be used only on non-living objects because the electron beams destroyed biological material. But he realised that using ultra-low temperatures to freeze molecules provided a solution by protecting the material from damage.

Following his crucial insight in 1990 scientists have been able to examine living organisms at the molecular level – such as amyloid, the sticky substance that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Today scientists routinely visualise everything from the bacterial proteins that cause antibiotic resistance to the surface of the Zika virus. A Nobel spokesman said scientists could see how biological molecules work together ‘down to the individual atoms’.

Last night Professor Henderson said ‘having a tea break was very important’ to his discovery because it helped him to get the insights of colleagues in different fields over a cuppa.

‘A lot of the best ideas come from discussions from across disciplines,’ he said. ‘ Most people, particularly the ones that value this exchange of information across new boundaries, they go to the canteen.

‘You can go there and meet with and talk to anybody and if there’s somebody you specifically wanted to speak to or somebody you specifically wanted to avoid you can see where they are sitting.’

His workplace, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University, has been dubbed the ‘Nobel Prize factory’. It has won 11 Nobels for science.

The other joint winners are Jacques Dubochet from the University of Lausanne and Joachim Frank from Columbia University. Each receives an equal share of the £837,000 prize.