Structural biology revolution led by technical breakthroughs in cryo-electron microscopy

Recent technical breakthroughs in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) revolutionized structural biology, which led to the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry being awarded to three scientists, Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson, who made groundbreaking contributions to the development of cryo-EM. In this review, I will give a comprehensive review of the developmental history of cryo-EM, the technical aspects of the breakthrough in cryo-EM leading to the structural biology revolution, including electron microscopy, image recording devices and image processing algorithms, and the major scientific achievements by Chinese researchers employing cryo-EM, covering protein complexes involved in or related to gene expression and regulation, protein synthesis and degradation, membrane proteins, immunity, and viruses. Finally, I will give a perspective outlook on the development of cryo-EM in the future.