The 2017 2017 Nobel in Chemistry: Cryo-electron Microscopy 🧬

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson have claimed the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of cryo-electron microscopy. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓

This year’s winners surprised many people and stirred up the perennial “is this really chemistry?” debate. But the Nobel committee (and the president of the American Chemical Society, Allison Campbell) believes that cryo-EM’s development is firmly entrenched in the central science. Check out our explainer behind the work that’s enabling researchers to image large biomolecules with atomic precision, ushering in a new era of biochemistry.

And there was at least one person whom this pick did not surprise. Shout out to Gurunath Ramanathan, a viewer of C&EN’s Nobel Prediction Webinar who submitted this guess: “Cryoelectron microscopy is changing the way in biology. My bet is on analytical chemistry.” Watch the full webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSGms9DQn7w

And be sure to check out these references for more on cryo-EM.

Cryo-electron microscopy innovators win 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/10/Cryo-electron-microscopy-innovators-win-2017-Nobel-Prize-in-Chemistry.html

The first herpes capsid at atomic resolution | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i27/first-herpes-capsid-atomic-resolution.html

Uncovering The Spliceosome’s Secrets | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i39/Uncovering-Spliceosomes-Secrets.html

New close-up views of the nuclear pore complex | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i16/New-closeviews-nuclear-pore-complex.html

Cryo-electron tomography provides first view of a cell’s nucleus in its natural, undisturbed environment | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i9/Cryo-electron-tomography-provides-first.html

Bold, Probably Incorrect Predictions of the Future of X-ray Diffraction | C&EN
http://cen.xraycrystals.org/essay-on-the-future-of-crystallography.html

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 | Nobelprize.org
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2017/

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