2016 Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics

Richard Henderson, member of the scientific staff in the MRC (Medical Research Council) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and editorial advisory board member of the open-access journal IUCrJ, will receive the 2016 Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics.

In 1975, Henderson and colleague Nigel Unwin determined the structure of bacteriorhodopsin - a light-driven proton pump found in the membrane of Archaea - using electron microscopy. This was revolutionary because the technique usually requires a stain that can obfuscate details, but Henderson and Unwin realized they could instead place the crystals on a thin carbon support and eliminate the stain. Starting in the 1990s, Henderson again revolutionized the field of structural biology when he turned his sights on another method for determining protein structure: cryoEM. In this technique, proteins are flash-frozen by plunging into liquid ethane then imaged with electron microscopy. Henderson and others made major improvements to the method - developing better sensors for electron microscopes, as well as better software for the system - that improved cryoEM to such an extent that it is now the preferred technique for determining protein structures.

The Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics is presented every three years and carries with it a $20,000 prize. The Award recognizes outstanding contributions made to the field of biophysics.

This article is a short extract reprinted from a press release published on the National Academy of Sciences website.