Noble Prize Winner of 2017
Noble Prize was given to three different people. Their names and qualifications are as under;
JACQUES DUBOCHET
He was born in 1942 in Aigle, Switzerland. He did his Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of Geneva and the University of Basel, Switzerland. He was an Honorary Professor of Biophysics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
JOACHIM FRENCH
He was born in 1940 in Siegen, a city in Germany. He did his Ph.D. in 1970 from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He was the Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and also of Biological Sciences at Columbia University in New York, USA.
RICHARD HENDERSON
He was born in 1945
in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his Ph.D. in 1969 from Cambridge University in the UK. He was Programmed Leader, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge,
UK.
PRIZE AMOUNT
9 MILLION Swedish KRONA are awarded to these three respected personalities on account of the work they did for mankind.
TIME OF AWARD
Noble Prize 2017 was announced on October 4, 2017, by
Professor Goran K. Hansson who was Secretary General of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences.
Noble Prize was given to them because of
FOR DEVELOPING CRYO-ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
OF THE HIGH-RESOLUTION STRUCTURE AND DETERMINATION OF BIOMOLECULES IN THE
SOLUTION.
IMPORTANCE OF THEIR WORK
With the help of
cryo-electron microscopy, we can study the detailed image of the subjects that we want to examine.
We can have the
image of life-complex queries in atomic resolution.
Jacques Dobuchet, Jochim French, and Richard Henderson were awarded the noble prize in 2017 in chemistry for the
simplification and improvement Of the imaging of biomolecules through the development of
cryo-electron microscopy.
This method has
moved the study of biomolecules into a new era.
IMPORTANCE OF VISUALISATION
A picture helps us in understanding. Scientific discoveries are often built upon the complete visualization of objects that cannot be seen by the naked eye. The biochemical map had not been completely defined because the available technology which is not sufficient to understand these maps has not helped mankind. Cryo-electron microscopy has revolutionized all of this. Scientists can now observe the midmovement of biomolecules and can freeze them to study them thoroughly which is helpful for the basic understanding of biomolecules and the production of medicines. The use of electrons in electron microscopy had been long thought to destroy the internal structures of biomolecules, so they study only dead matter, But;
Ø Richard Henderson, in
1990, has been able to make an image to see the internal of the protein at
atomic resolution by using an electron microscope. This invention proved
technology’s potential.
Ø Jochim French generally
helped in the simplification and making the technology applicable. Between
1975 and 1986, he made attempts to
analyze the two-dimensional image of the electron microscope and converts it
into three-dimensional image.
Ø Jacques Dobuchet also
helped a lot in this field. He added water to electron microscopy. The
biomolecules collapse when the liquid water evaporates in the electron
microscope’s vacuum. In the early 1980s, Dobuchet succeeded in vitrifying water-he cooled this water immediately and
made this water solidify in the liquid form around the biological sample and
this helps to retain the shape and nature of the biochemical specimen even in a vacuum.
With these breakthroughs, electron microscopy has been analyzed by every nut and bolt. The thorough atomic resolved microscope has been made in 2013. Scientists can now study biomolecules to atomic resolution with three-dimensional images of them. The scientific studies have been filled with three-dimensional images of the protein that can cause resistance against antibodies to the surface of eventually small Zika virus. Biochemists are facing explosive establishment and all owe to these breakthroughs. This sets for an exciting future.
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