2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for cutting-edge method development
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet (Switzerland), Joachim Frank (US) and Richard Henderson (UK) for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in a solution.
"This is one of the most rapidly developing methods that makes it possible to visualize proteins, viruses and other biological structures on the molecular level. It's a cutting-edge method," Vasilyev emphasized.
He explained that cryo-electron microscopy emerged back in the 1980s, and has been actively developing over the recent years due to the improvement in tool and computing platforms, including supercomputers.
"[This method] makes it possible to restore the structure of proteins at a resolution higher than 2.2 angstroms (0.2 nanometers - TASS), and this is what's called full-atom models... This provides the means for studying even certain states, or conformations, of ribosomes and receive data not averaged, as in X-rays, namely about the peculiarities of the state. You can capture some reactions that occur in proteins," Vasilyev said.
Photo:© EPA-EFE/Claudio Bresciani