2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry announced

At 5:45 p.m on October 4, Beijing time, the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry was announced, Jacques dubochet, Joachim frank and Richard Henderson won the award for "developing cryo electron microscopy for the high resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution" The function of biomolecule is determined by its structure There are three main methods to study its structure: X-ray crystal diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance and single particle frozen electron microscope (frozen electron microscope) In the 1980s, dubochet and others reported the technological innovation of a single particle electron microscope, which led the technology to the road of high-resolution imaging They imaged the samples on a thin, transparent layer of ice at low temperature using a single particle electron microscope This method is "cryo electron microscopy (cryo EM)", which can directly image the hydrous particles In addition to these advantages, low temperature can also reduce the radiation damage of electron beam to the sample However, the amount of electron beam irradiation can not be too large Only in this way can we clearly reflect the details of molecular structure and obtain high-quality, low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) three-dimensional structure image Because the combination of multiple image information of each molecule can further reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of the image, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of protein complexes will be generated for analysis The invention of frozen electron microscopy provides an efficient method for the analysis of protein biomacromolecule structure Speaking of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, we have to mention its common name "Nobel Prize for synthesis" Since the first prize was awarded in 1901, the Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to biology, biochemistry, biophysics, physics and other fields for many times, which can be described as "no business" In 1945, the Nobel Prize in chemistry was even awarded to a research that seemed to belong to the field of agriculture, in recognition of "the research and invention of agricultural and Nutritional Chemistry, especially the proposed method of feed storage" Of course, this is not the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the award of "make up" the "shaker." In fact, the awarding of the Nobel Prize has always followed the principle of "better lack than abuse" Why does the Nobel Prize for chemistry frequently "Zhang Guanli Dai"? In the study of life problems, the research object is biological macromolecules such as proteins, but in the exploration of the functional significance and change regulation of its internal details, it actually follows the chemical law, which should belong to the chemical category Therefore, this year's Nobel Prize winner in chemistry is indeed "well deserved" Official announcement of Nobel Prize: https://www.nobelprize.org/