Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to researchers Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for their work that developed cryo-electron microscopy, which the 

 says "both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules."


Speaking to the prize committee by phone Wednesday morning, Frank said he had thought the chance of him winning the prestigious honor was "minuscule."

He added that cryo-electron microscopy "is about to completely transform structural biology," saying the technology is being taken up by a new generation of medical researchers.

The academy adds that the advance "has moved biochemistry into a new era" and provided new ways of seeing complex structures and operations within human cells at a never-before-seen level of resolution.

The recent spike in Zika cases hinted at that new era. The Swedish academy noted that the technology was used to create three-dimensional images of the virus and its proteins at atomic resolution — "and researchers could start searching for potential targets for pharmaceuticals."

Dubochet is affiliated with the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland; Frank is affiliated with Columbia University in New York; Henderson is affiliated with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K.

Here's how the Academy describes their accomplishments:

With the award, seven Americans have now been honored among the nine researchers who have been recognized so far in the 2017 Nobel season. Toward the end of Wednesday's event, a journalist from Chinese radio asked Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Secretary General Göran K. Hansson about the prevalence of Americans, and what it says about U.S. research environment and policies.

"The United States has, since the Second World War, allowed scientists to perform fundamental research, to focus on important questions in science — not forcing them to immediate applications, not controlling them in a political way. And that freedom, combined with very good resources, has been very helpful to the United States."

He added, "But it's not unique to the United States."


Last year's chemistry Nobel also went to small-scale work, honoring three scientists who worked to 

Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson worked to develop cryo-electron microscopy, which the Royal Swedish Academy says "both simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules."

Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors views of human cells working at the atomic level

Go Deeper.

Like this?