The 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to three scientists (Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson) for developing cryo-electron microscopy for high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solutions. This commentary describes the development of cryo-electron microscopy, three-dimensional reconstruction of macromolecules, major technology breakthroughs leading to the recent uprising of cryo-electron microscopy, and the future perspective of the field.

2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry  /  cryo-electron microscopy  /  three-dimensional reconstruction  /  structure of macromolecules