A revolutionary technique dubbed cryo-electron microscopy, which has shed light on the Zika virus and an Alzheimer’s enzyme, earned scientists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Wednesday. Thanks to the international team’s “cool method”, which uses electron beams to examine the tiniest structures of cells, “researchers can now freeze biomolecules mid-movement and visualise processes they have never previously seen,” the Nobel chemistry committee said. The ultra-sensitive imaging method allows molecules to be flash-frozen and studied in their natural form, without the need for dyes. “When researchers began to suspect that the Zika virus was causing the epidemic of brain-damaged newborns in Brazil, they turned to electron microscopy to visualise the virus,” the committee said. Because the powerful electron beam destroys biological material, electron microscopes were long thought to be useful only to study dead matter.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 04, 2017 13:18 UTC