Chemistry 1 Extra Credit Opportunity

By: Justin Nhan

12/2/18

Jacques Dubochet’s Life

I chose to do my extra credit opportunity on the Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 2017, Jacques
Dubochet, who also shared this prize between Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson. Jacques Dubochet
was born on June eight, 1942 in Aigle, Switzerland. Jacques Dubochet was raised in
southwestern Switzerland, Aigle. As a child, Jacques Dubochet was diagnosed with a chronic neurological
disorder called dyslexia. This disorder inhibits a person’s ability to recognize and process graphic symbols,
particularly those pertaining to language. This meant that Jacque Dubochet had extremely poor reading
skills as a child and tended to read and write words and letters in reversed sequences. However, these
obstacles would not stop Jacques Dubochet from winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017.
Jacques Dubochet began his early college academic years at the Polytechnic School of the
University of Lausanne, which is now known as the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne. At this school,
Jacques Dubochet would receive his degree in physical engineering by 1967. Afterward, Dubochet would
then go to the University of Geneva to earn his certificate in molecular biology by 1969. Dubochet later
would earn his Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Geneva and the University of Basel. Furthermore,
by 1978 Dubochet would eventually join the faculty at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory
(EMBL), which was in Heidelberg. During his time there, Dubochet served as the head of the Electron
Microscopy Applications Laboratory and would later develop a cryo-electron microscopy. Dubochet would
remain at EMBL until he became a professor of biophysics at the University of Lausanne in 1987. Dubochet
would eventually retire in 2007.
Prior to Dubochet’s retirement; in the 1970s Dubochet gained expertise in the dark-field electron
microscopy and would later use this technique to successfully image the tobacco mosaic virus and DNA.
However, Dubochet faced an issue that many other researchers faced when applying the electron
microscopy to biological samples, and it was his images were distorted. This was a consequence of the
natural occurrence of water in biological materials. This would result in sample dehydration and structural
collapse of the material when the biological material is under vacuum conditions, which is a required
condition for electron microscopy. In order to combat this obstacle, Dubochet decided that the biological
specimens would need to be in a frozen state prior to being imaged.
After coming up with this idea, Dubochet started to research and devise methods that could rapidly
cool water molecules, and effectively freeze them before they could crystallize. With the help of his
colleague Alasdair McDowall, both Dubochet and McDowall would eventually succeed. They did this by
successfully transferring a biological sample/specimen to a metal mesh surface and plunging the metal
mesh into ethane while it is being cooled by liquid nitrogen to roughly about 190 °C, which
converted/transformed the water on the sample into a glasslike substance.
This discovery by Dubochet and McDowall would eventually be published and would be critical
to the advance of cryo-electron microscopy in the future. Since this groundbreaking discovery would now
allow researchers to obtain images of biological materials/specimens that are more like the natural state of
that material/specimen. In addition, Dubochet would spend the rest of his career continually trying to find
ways to refine the techniques for the structural imaging of biological materials/specimens by the cryo-
electron microscopy. On top of that, Dubochet developed a method known as the Cryo-electron microscopy
of vitreous sections (CEMOVIS). This method would allow researchers the ability to apply the vitrification
(transformation of a substance into glass) to the cells and tissues, which in return would result with visuals
of very fine structural detail. In addition, Dubochet also decided to continue studying the usage of the
electron microscopy to the study of structural aspects of the DNA and chromatin. Lastly, on top of receiving
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017, Dubochet was also a recipient of the EMBL Lennart Philipson Award
in 2015.
The Nobel Prize
In 2017, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jacque Dubochet along with Joachim Frank,
and Richard Henderson for the creation the of the Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). This is a method
for imaging frozen-hydrated biological materials/specimens at cryogenic temperatures with an electron
microscopy. This meant that researchers would be able to study the fine cellular structures of the biological
materials/specimens with molecular resolution. This included viruses, protein complexes and cell structures
of a specimen.
Jacque Dubochet was the head leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg
in the 1980s. With the help of his colleagues, they were able to make a method to freeze thin layers of
solutions of enzymes or viruses without forming ice crystals. This technique became known as vitrification.
Afterward, Dubochet and his team then focused on studying these newfound layers with an electron
microscope. As a result, they were able to simplify the process of visualizing biomolecules in solution.
Overall, these advancements ultimately gave birth to Cryo-electron microscopy and quickly became one of
the cornerstones of modern structural biology.
In addition, with the help of his team, they also were able to develop other important
methods/techniques that were built on his previous invention. This included a technique that enabled the
cutting of vitreous (glass-like) sections of high-pressure frozen tissues, which allowed for the insides of the
cells to be imaged. So, with the new advancements thanks to Dubochet and his team, more scientists will
be able to use these new cutting-edge imaging technologies soon when imaging biomolecules.
With the combined efforts and expertise in their respected areas, the three biophysicists were able
to win a Nobel prize together. With Richard Henderson contributing with his success in using an electron
microscope to generate a three-dimensional image of a protein at atomic resolution, which was a
breakthrough that proved the technology’s potential. Joachim Frank contributed by making the technology
generally applicable. He did this by developing an image processing method that made the electron
microscope’s fuzzy/blurry two-dimensional images into sharp three-dimensional structures. Lastly, Jacques
succeeded in vitrifying water by cooling the 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.
In conclusion, with these amazing discoveries from Dubochet, Henderson, and Frank the electron
microscope had been finally optimized. In addition, the long-awaited atomic resolution was finally reached
in 2013, and at last, allowed researchers to be able to routinely produce three-dimensional structures of
biomolecules. Overall, this deserving Nobel Prize in Chemistry award of Dubochet, Henderson, and Frank
has developed a method that has moved biochemistry into a new era.
 Works Cited

Gristwood, Adam. “EMBL - European Molecular Biology Laboratory.” Jacques Dubochet Wins Nobel Prize for
Chemistry - EMBL, 4 Oct. 2017, www.embl.it/aboutus/alumni/news/news_2017/20171004_Dubochet-
Nobel-Prize/.
Nobel Foundation. “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017.” Nobelprize.org, The Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences, 4 Oct. 2017, www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2017/press-release/.
Rogers, Kara. “Jacques Dubochet.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Nov. 2018,
www.britannica.com/biography/Jacques-Dubochet.