On Wednesday, October 4, the Nobel Committee officially announced the names of the Nobel Prize winners-2017 in chemistry. It received three biophysics Jacques Dubois, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson.
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The Scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of high-resolution cryoelectron microscopy to determine the structures of biomolecules in solution. Cryoelectron microscopy makes it possible to observe molecules by freezing them very quickly with the preservation of the natural structure. By the method of Dubois, Frank and Henderson microscopy, one can study biomolecules stopped in motion. This “expands the general possibilities of knowing the chemical principles of life and the possibilities in developing drugs.”
Note that although there are no Nobel Prizes in biophysics, for the last few decades, a third of the Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry have been awarded to biophysicists, or for works in the field of biophysics! Now biophysics is a popular interdisciplinary specialty, which is rapidly developing. In Ukraine, biophysicists are trained in our department at the Department of Molecular and Medical Biophysics and in Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko at the Faculty of Biology. But it is precisely among us that such specialists receive high-quality knowledge not only in biology and chemistry, but also in physics and mathematics, which makes them truly interdisciplinary specialists capable of discoveries similar to those made by Dubois, Frank and Henderson.
At our school within the specialty 105 Applied physics and nanomaterials, bachelor’s degree in biophysics is being prepared (the educational and professional program “Radiophysics and Electronics and Biophysics”) and Masters of Biophysics (educational and professional program “Biophysics”).
In addition, the faculty also has postgraduate and doctoral studies in biophysics, a specialized academic council for the protection of dissertations of a doctor and candidate of physical and mathematical sciences in this specialty, and also a professional scientific journal Biophysical Herald is published. Thus, it is we who are preparing the “full cycle” biophysics.
As it is known, Nobel Prize laureates in biology Ilya Mechnikov and physics Lev Landau studied and worked at our university. Therefore, it is possible that it is at our school that future biophysicists, the Nobel Prize laureates, study or work.