- Born:
- June 8, 1942, Aigle, Switzerland (age 84)
- Awards And Honors:
- Nobel Prize (2017)
- Subjects Of Study:
- biomolecule
- electron
- water
- cryo-electron microscopy
- electron microscopy
Jacques Dubochet
-
Who is Jacques Dubochet?
Jacques Dubochet (born in Aigle, Switzerland, on June 8, 1942) is a Swiss biophysicist celebrated for his work in vitrifying water around biomolecules. This process prevents the formation of ice crystals in biological specimens.
Dubochet discovered that rapidly cooling water in liquid ethane allowed it to remain liquid at freezing temperatures. This method preserved the natural shape of biomolecules for biological imaging via electron microscopy.
His groundbreaking work was critical to advancing cryo-electron microscopy, enabling scientists to image biological materials in a state closer to their natural condition. Dubochet shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with biophysicists Richard Henderson and Joachim Frank for these discoveries.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What is a biophysicist?
A biophysicist applies physics and other physical sciences to solve biological problems. Biophysicists can separate biological problems into segments that allow for precise physical interpretation and create testable hypotheses.
Jacques Dubochet (1942–2021) was a Swiss biophysicist notable for his work vitrifying water around biomolecules, which prevents ice crystals from forming in biological specimens. Dubochet found that rapidly cooling water in liquid ethane allowed it to stay liquid at freezing temperatures. This process preserved the natural shape of biomolecules needed for biological imaging using electron microscopy. He shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What important scientific contribution did Jacques Dubochet make?
Jacques Dubochet, a Swiss biophysicist, is known for his work vitrifying water around biomolecules, which prevents ice crystals from forming in biological specimens. He discovered that rapidly cooling water in liquid ethane allowed it to remain liquid at freezing temperatures. This process preserved the natural shape of biomolecules for biological imaging using electron microscopy.
His research was crucial to advancing cryo-electron microscopy, enabling researchers to image biological materials in a state closer to their natural condition. For this work, Dubochet shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Richard Henderson and Joachim Frank.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What is cryo-electron microscopy, a field Dubochet helped develop?
Jacques Dubochet was a Swiss biophysicist who helped develop cryo-electron microscopy. This technique is significant because it allows scientists to examine samples too small for light microscopes. Dubochet found a way to vitrify water around biomolecules, which prevented ice crystals from forming and preserved their natural shape for electron microscopy. His method involves rapidly cooling water molecules by plunging a biological sample into ethane cooled by liquid nitrogen. This ensures the water turns into a thin film, maintaining the sample's structure during imaging. Dubochet's work was crucial for advancing cryo-electron microscopy, enabling researchers to image biological materials in a state closer to their natural condition.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did Dubochet’s work with cryo-electron microscopy change how scientists study biological molecules?
Jacques Dubochet's work developing cryo-electron microscopy revolutionized the study of biomolecules by enabling scientists to observe them in a near-native state. Dubochet discovered that rapidly cooling water in liquid ethane could vitrify it, preventing ice crystal formation that distorted biological samples.
This method allowed researchers to preserve the natural shape of biomolecules in the vacuum required for electron microscopy. Dubochet's technique, published in 1981, was critical to advancing cryo-electron microscopy, allowing for more accurate structural imaging of biological materials. He further refined these techniques, including cryoEM of vitreous sections (CEMOVIS), for visualizing fine structural details in cells and tissues.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
For what achievement did Jacques Dubochet receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
Jacques Dubochet, a Swiss biophysicist, received the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his success in vitrifying water around biomolecules. This process prevented the formation of ice crystals in biological specimens.
He discovered that rapidly cooling water in liquid ethane allowed it to remain liquid at freezing temperatures. This preserved the natural shape of biomolecules for biological imaging using electron microscopy. He shared the prize with biophysicists Richard Henderson and Joachim Frank.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Jacques Dubochet (born June 8, 1942, Aigle, Switzerland) is a Swiss biophysicist who succeeded in vitrifying water around biomolecules, thereby preventing the formation of ice crystals in biological specimens. Dubochet discovered that water could retain its liquid form at freezing temperatures if it was cooled very rapidly in liquid ethane. Doing so preserved the natural shape of biomolecules in the vacuum environment necessary for biological imaging by electron microscopy. For his discoveries, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with biophysicists Richard Henderson and Joachim Frank).
Dubochet was raised in southwestern Switzerland. In his youth, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. He attended the Polytechnic School of the University of Lausanne (now the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne), where he received a degree in physical engineering in 1967. He then went to the University of Geneva, earning a certificate in molecular biology in 1969. He later earned a Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Geneva and the University of Basel. In 1978, following a period at the Biocentre of the University of Basel, Dubochet joined the faculty at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) at Heidelberg. There, he served as the head of the Electron Microscopy Applications Laboratory and developed cryo-electron microscopy. He remained at EMBL until 1987, when he became a professor of biophysics at the University of Lausanne. He retired in 2007.
In the 1970s, Dubochet developed expertise in dark-field electron microscopy and used the technique to successfully image the tobacco mosaic virus and DNA. Nonetheless, as was the experience of other researchers applying electron microscopy to biological samples, Dubochet’s images were distorted, a consequence of the natural occurrence of water in biological material, which resulted in sample dehydration and structural collapse under the vacuum conditions required for electron microscopy. From the work of others in the field, Dubochet became convinced that in order to overcome the problem, biological specimens would need to be imaged in a frozen state.
After joining the EMBL, Dubochet began to investigate methods to rapidly cool water molecules, freezing them before they could crystallize. He and colleague Alasdair McDowall eventually succeeded in transferring a biological sample to a metal mesh surface and plunging the mesh into ethane cooled by liquid nitrogen to about −190 °C, which vitrified the water around the sample. Upon cooling, the water formed a thin film across the mesh. The sample was then cooled with liquid nitrogen during imaging. Dubochet and McDowall published their groundbreaking work on the vitrification of water for electron microscopy in 1981.
Dubochet’s research was critical to the advance of cryo-electron microscopy, allowing researchers to obtain images of biological materials that more closely resembled the natural state of the material. Throughout the remainder of his career, he continued to refine techniques for structural imaging of biological materials by cryo-electron microscopy. He developed a method known as cryoEM of vitreous sections (CEMOVIS), which researchers could apply to the vitrification of cells and tissues for the visualization of very fine structural detail. He also continued to apply electron microscopy to the study of structural aspects of DNA and chromatin.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dubochet was a recipient of the EMBL Lennart Philipson Award (2015).