According to Nicolas Rasmussen, only the electron microscope could provide convincing evidence that virus were distinct entities present in infected tissue, or purified intact there from. The electron micrograph of a virus was its official, definitive portrait. The benefits to medical science of the electron microscope have been numerous such as it allowed researchers for the first time to view viruses directly, instead of merely suspecting their existence and guessing about their structure and behavior. The electron microscope has been crucial to another major area of biomedical research. As researchers have begun to unlock the secrets of this genetic code, an immense new vista of medicine has opened up.

One prominent example was the creation of a new field of science: cell biology-the study of what goes on within individual cells. Claude devised ways to look at cells with an electron microscope, by first grinding the cells into fragments and then sorting out the component fragments with a centrifuge. Some of the medical research made possible by the electron microscope has been pure-that is, research done primarily for the knowledge gained, regardless of whether it will lead to practical uses. This technique enabled him to create the first electron microscope-generated micrographs of cells in 1945. Two of Claude’s colleagues such as Christian de Duve, a Briton, and George Palade, a Romanian followed this pioneering work with breakthroughs of their own.

Together, the three created the basic methodology that formed the new science of cell biology. In 1974, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for these accomplishments. His methods provided a way of maki. The practical field of medicine that opened up the most dramatically and immediately via the electron microscope was virology, the study of viruses. Thanks to advanced microscopes, breakthroughs in biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology have revolutionized the study of viruses.

Nonetheless, viruses are very effective at surviving. More recently, electron microscopy has proved effective in identifying and studying new viruses. For example, a British chemist, Aaron Klug, won the 1982 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his innovative work using electron microscopes to reveal the three dimensional structure of viruses. They do this by invading the cells of plants, animals, or people. Perhaps the most dramatic story of discovering a vaccine concerns poliomyelitis, a highly contagious viral infection. In the long struggle to find a vaccine for polio, many people played important roles. Also during the 1950s, the electron microscope played a crucial role in another profound breakthrough in biomedicine.

Medical science was aware of DNA long before microscopy became sophisticated enough to prove its existence. Progress with viral research was slow at first. Much more effective, in the long run, was research in other areas of virology. The discovery of the double helix has had deep repercussions for medical science. Perhaps the most dramatic application of microscopy in DNA research is in the field of genetic engineering. Interferons are proteins that the body naturally produces to fight infections. Perhaps genetic engineering’s most striking aspect is its potential for controlling or even eliminating inherited diseases. Another example concerned the creation of synthetic interferons in the early 1980s. The electron microscope was vitally important to medicine throughout the twentieth century, and it continues to be so.