El Premio Nobel de Química 2017 ha sido otorgado a Jacques Dubochet , Joachim Frank y Richard Henderson por el desarrollo de la criomicroscopía electrónica, que simplifica y mejora la proyección de imagen de biomoléculas. Durante mucho tiempo se creyó que los microscopios electrónicos sólo eran convenientes para la proyección de imágenes de materiales sin vida, dado que el haz de electrones de alta potencia destruye material biológico. Pero en 1990, Richard Henderson tuvo éxito en el uso de un microscopio de electrones para generar una imagen tridimensional de una proteína a resolución atómica. Este gran avance demostró el potencial de esta tecnología. Frank simplificó la aplicación práctica a través del procesamiento de las imágenes para obtener estructuras 3D y finalmente Dubochet solucionó el problema de la vaporización del agua en el vacio, permitiendo a las moléculas biológicas, por ejemplo, proteínas, mantener su forma.
A picture is a key to understanding. Scientific breakthroughs often build upon the successful visualisation of objects invisible to the human eye. However, biochemical maps have long been filled with blank spaces because the available technology has had difficulty generating images of much of life’s molecular machinery. Cryo-electron microscopy changes all of this. Researchers can now freeze biomolecules mid-movement and visualise processes they have never previously seen, which is decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals.
Electron microscopes were long believed to only be suitable for imaging dead matter, because the powerful electron beam destroys biological material. But in 1990, Richard Henderson succeeded in using an electron microscope to generate a three-dimensional image of a protein at atomic resolution. This breakthrough proved the technology’s potential.
Joachim Frank made the technology generally applicable. Between 1975 and 1986 he developed an image processing method in which the electron microscope’s fuzzy twodimensional images are analysed and merged to reveal a sharp three-dimensional structure.
Jacques Dubochet added water to electron microscopy. Liquid water evaporates in the electron microscope’s vacuum, which makes the biomolecules collapse. In the early 1980s, Dubochet succeeded in vitrifying water – he cooled water so rapidly that it solidified in its liquid form around a biological sample, allowing the biomolecules to retain their natural shape even in a vacuum.
Following these discoveries, the electron microscope’s every nut and bolt have been optimised. The desired atomic resolution was reached in 2013, and researchers can now routinely produce three-dimensional structures of biomolecules. In the past few years, scientific literature has been filled with images of everything from proteins that cause antibiotic resistance, to the surface of the Zika virus. Biochemistry is now facing an explosive development and is all set for an exciting future.
Fuente: https://www.nobelprize.org
