Source of Light – and Inspiration

While the world hurries to congratulate the 2018 Nobel Prize winners, we’re still celebrating Richard Henderson, who, along with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank, won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution (1).” Why? On September 12, 2018, Henderson officially opened Diamond Light Source’s electron bio-imaging centre (eBIC) in Cambridge, UK. The event coincided with the announcement of a partnership between Diamond and Thermo Fisher Scientific, which adds two new microscopes and professional cryo-EM services specifically for the pharmaceutical industry.

The additional capacity makes eBIC one of the largest cryo-EM sites in the world – a true nod to the technology’s fast-growing significance in structural biology. Rich Whitworth, Content Director of The Analytical Scientist, was given the opportunity for a brief one-on-one with the Nobel laureate.