The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 has been awarded to three scientists for pioneering work on new methods of visualising biomolecules.
Jacques Dubochet of Switzerland, Joachim Frank of the US and Richard Henderson of the UK were awarded the prize for cryo-electron microsopy — a technique that allows scientists to freeze biomolecules and “visualise processes they have never previously seen,” according the announcement.
The technique means that viruses and bacteria — such as the Zika virus — can be examined under a microscope in their native state.
This development is “decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry” and the development of drugs, the Nobel committee said.
The announcement was made Wednesday in Stockholm, Sweden.
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