Mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) applied to biological macromolecules

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2002 is to be shared between scientists working on two very important methods of chemical analysis applied to biological macromolecules: mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Laureates John B. Fenn, Koichi Tanaka (MS) and Kurt Wüthrich (NMR) have pioneered the successful application of their techniques to biological macromolecules. Biological macromolecules are the main actors in the makeup of life whether expressed in prospering diversity or in threatening disease. To understand biology and medicine at molecular level where the identity, functional characteristics, structural architecture and specific interactions of biomolecules are the basis of life, we need to visualize the activity and interplay of large macromolecules such as proteins. To study, or analyse, the protein molecules, principles for their separation and determination of their individual characteristics had to be developed. Two of the most important chemical techniques used today for the analysis of biomolecules are mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the subjects of this year’s Nobel Prize award.