Can cryoelectron microscopy produce more Nobel Prize achievements?

Beijing time1October 4 17: 45, 20 17 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced.

Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Joachim Frank of Columbia University in the United States and Richard Henderson of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom won this honor for "developing a cryoelectron microscope that can determine the high-resolution structure of biomolecules in solution".

Wang Hongwei, Dean of the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University, and Sun Fei, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, all said that they were "not surprised".

Winning the Nobel Prize does not mean perfection.

"In the first two years, I thought this technology could win the Nobel Prize." Sun Fei has been engaged in the methodology research of bioelectromicroscopy for a long time, and he is also the vice chairman of cryo-electron microscopy branch of China biophysics society.

Although Sun Fei did not directly cooperate with the three Nobel Prize winners, they all had contact.

In an interview, he introduced that the frozen electron microscope imaging technology pioneered by Jacques Dupochette, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson can let scientists see the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of biomacromolecule complexes, which greatly promotes the research of molecular biology and the understanding of biological mysteries.

It is worth noting that the main work of these three scientists was completed in the 1970s and 1980s. Time has proved their foresight.

The picture shows the frozen electron microscope image of cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus CPV (upper left) and the three-dimensional reconstruction of cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus capsid (middle). The colored part of the reconstruction result is the most basic asymmetric structural unit of the virus. The figure on the right is an enlarged view of the asymmetric unit (upper right) and the constructed atomic model (lower right). The left picture shows the three-dimensional reconstruction electron density diagram of some amino acids and the atomic model, and the amino acid side chain can be clearly seen.

Sun Fei told Science and Technology Daily that scientists in the field of structural biology are widely using cryoelectron microscopes. At present, the most advanced research direction in this field is to further improve the technical methods, especially the preparation of frozen samples, and further improve the resolution and technical flux of frozen electron microscopy. After these breakthroughs, this technology will be widely used in the field of drug development.

"Winning the Nobel Prize does not mean that this technology is perfect." Wang Hongwei also said that there is still a long way to go in the future frozen electron microscope imaging technology.

Wang Hongwei believes that biologists, physicists and computer scientists need further innovation in methodology, especially in analyzing the fine structure of cells and the structural changes of biological macromolecules.

"Although it is a physical technology, it has opened up a new world for biophysics and its influence is immeasurable." Sun Fei evaluation.

Intriguingly, this is not the first time that microscopic imaging technology has won this honor. Super-resolution fluorescence microscope won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 20 14 years.

Domestic application is not backward.

Thankfully, China is not backward in the field of cryoelectron microscopy.

Wang Hongwei introduced that the earliest cryomicroscope in China began in the mid-1990s. At that time, Academician Sui Senfang of Tsinghua University, Professor Zhang Jingqiang of Sun Yat-sen University and researcher Xu Wei of Institute of Biophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences were all doing research in this field.

By the beginning of 2 1 century, the frozen electron microscope technology was gradually mature, and some domestic scientific research units began to lay out.

Wang Hongwei told reporters that in 2008, Professor Shi Yigong of Tsinghua University purchased the first high-end cryomicroscope in Asia, and the School of Medicine of Peking University and the Institute of Biophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences also began to purchase equipment. In addition, China also recruited young scientists from abroad to start research in this field.

"From 2007 to 2009, China began to invest heavily in this field to strengthen the construction of talent team. Most young people engaged in research in this field in China have a certain relationship with the three winners. " Wang Hongwei believes that it was just the right time for China to deploy cryo-electron microscope technology at that time, because the maturity of software and hardware in 20 13 years showed its advantages.

Sun Fei told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that Professor Shi Yigong's extensive research on the shear complex was completed by this technology, and the high-resolution structure of the plant light-harvesting complex in the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was also completed by this technology.

"So this technology will lead to a lot of excellent research results," Sun Fei said.

At present, the research in the field of macromolecular structure analysis in China is excellent, and the application of cryoelectron microscopy is also very influential internationally.

However, in Wang Hongwei's view, China still needs to make greater efforts in the development of this technical methodology, and this year's Nobel Prize winner in chemistry has made original achievements in the development of methodology.

As we all know, the important discoveries brought by X-ray crystallography technology have won many Nobel Prizes. Is cryoelectron microscopy possible?

"This Nobel Prize is to reward the methodological innovation of cryoelectron microscopy. In the future, using this technology to analyze important molecular structures and solve important biological problems, it is entirely possible to win the Nobel Prize again. China also has great potential in this regard. " Wang Hongwei said.