The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017

The Nobel Prize is a set of annual, international awards that are bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions to individual(s) or organisation(s) who have worked tirelessly towards advancements in scientific, academic and cultural fields. The brainchild of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, these prizes are considered to be one of the most prestigious achievements in the world recognising the outstanding contributions made in the field of Science.

The Nobel Prize for the year 2017 in the field of Chemistry has been bestowed to three scientists, Richard Henderson, Joachim Frank and Jacques Dubochet for development of cryo-electron microscopy for the high resolution structure determination of bio molecules in solution. The development of cryo-electron microscopy has enabled the scientists to ‘stop’ the bio molecules and visualise the inner workings of such molecules. This is helping the current pharmaceutical industries to develop new and more effective drugs to combat diseases in an efficient manner. According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this advancement “simplifies and improves the imaging of bio molecules” thus pushing “biochemistry into a new era”.

-Ashwin Shenoy

Sources:

1) https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/seeing-the-invisible-world-with-the-2017-nobel-prize-in-chemistry

2) https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2017/

3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel