Dr. Jacques Dubochet is a distinguished Swiss biophysicist renowned for his transformative contributions to structural biology and microscopy techniques. Born on June 8, 1942, in Aigle, Switzerland, he pursued his physics education at the École Polytechnique of the University of Lausanne before specializing in molecular biology at the University of Geneva. He completed his doctoral thesis in biophysics at the Universities of Geneva and Basel in 1973, establishing the foundation for his groundbreaking work in electron microscopy. From 1978 to 1987, Dubochet served as a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, where he began developing the techniques that would revolutionize biological imaging. In 1987, he returned to Switzerland as a professor at the University of Lausanne, where he directed the Electron Microscopy Centre and later served as head of the Biology Department from 1998 to 2002.
Dubochet's seminal contribution to science was the development of cryo-electron microscopy through the innovative technique of water vitrification, which he pioneered in the early 1980s. He discovered that by rapidly cooling biological samples in liquid ethane, water could be solidified around biomolecules without forming distorting ice crystals, thereby preserving their natural structure in the vacuum environment of electron microscopes. This breakthrough enabled researchers for the first time to visualize biomolecules, viruses, and cellular structures in their native hydrated state with unprecedented clarity. His methodology fundamentally transformed structural biology, allowing scientists to determine the high-resolution structures of complex biological molecules that had previously resisted analysis. Additionally, Dubochet developed the CEMOVIS technique for cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections, which enabled the visualization of intact cells and tissues at remarkable detail.
The impact of Dubochet's work extends far beyond academic research, serving as a cornerstone for modern drug discovery and structural biology that has accelerated pharmaceutical development worldwide. His techniques have become standard practice in laboratories across the globe, enabling researchers to examine biological processes at near-atomic resolution and understand disease mechanisms with unprecedented precision. In recognition of his transformative contributions, Dubochet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017, jointly with Richard Henderson and Joachim Frank, for developing cryo-electron microscopy for high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution. Throughout his career, he maintained a visionary approach to scientific inquiry, famously noting that water, when treated with suitable care, is the electron microscopist's best friend rather than a foe. Though now retired, Dubochet's legacy continues to inspire new generations of researchers pursuing the ambitious goal of creating an atomic map of the entire cell.
