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3DEM History and Genealogy 1968-2011
Welcome to the Web Page on the History of 3-Dimensional Electron Microscopy in Biology
Since the inception of the field of 3-Dimensional Electron Microscopy in Biology in 1968 there has been remarkable growth in the number of labs and scientists active in the field of 3DEM.
The aim of this website is to provide links to some of the original papers which spawned the field and reviews which have chronicled the subsequent development of the field. Several of these resources are published personal accountings by colleagues who were central in the field, and also narratives written especially for this project.
An attempt has been made to present a genealogy reflecting the original groups in the field and to show how the field has propagated from the few pioneer laboratories in 3DEM, and the interrelationships between them.
The genealogy data in the map has purposely been cut off at the year 2011. This arose because of the almost exponential rise in 3DEM activity since this date. We felt that chronicling the early steps of the development of the field would provide a valuable resource in understanding how the field evolved.
Here is a link to the criteria used for inclusion in the genealogy.
We rely on you, our colleagues, to make further contributions to the website and to guide us in the accuracy of the facts we present. Please feel free to contact us (Alexis, Martin, Ardan)!
Network Visualization
This is an attempt at an academic genealogy of the field of 3D EM and is a work in progress.
Academic genealogy: Frequently Asked Questions
This genealogy aims to record the growth of the field of 3D EM from 1968 to 2011
Who is included?
Researchers who hold or have held permanent positions and who have made a significant contribution to the field of 3D EM. PhD students, postdocs and other non-permanent scientists are not included. Tenure-track faculty are included.
Technical Staff with more than 5 publications in the field of 3DEM are also included in the list.
What do arrows signify?
Links denote mentorship. Typically, PhD supervisor – student and PI – postdoc relationships are denoted by links. If a person trained or worked in more than one lab, these relationships may be indicated.
Why are some nodes larger, more visible than others?
The choice of which nodes to emphasize aims to reflect:
- Those scientists who initiated the field of 3D EM
- The number of their academic “descendants”
- The fact that some researchers entered the field independently of others, in a sense becoming “first-generation” contributors
Why is X not included? I can see errors, can they be corrected?
Since there is no authoritative source for information needed to compile this genealogy we rely on feedback to ensure there are no omissions or other mistakes.
Development of the field of 3DEM
Publications related to the history of 3D EM
| David DeRosier | 3D reconstruction from electron micrographs a personal account of its development | Methods Enzymol. 2010;481:1-24 |
| Bob Glaeser | Review: Electron Crystallography: Present Excitement, a Nod to the Past, Anticipating the Future | J Struct Biol. 1999 Dec 1;128(1):3-14 |
| Ken Taylor, Bob Glaeser | Retrospective on the early development of cryoelectron microscopy of macromolecules and a prospective on opportunities for the future | J Struct Biol. 2008 Sep;163(3):214-23 |
| Obituary: Walter Hoppe | J. Appl. Cryst. (1987) 20, 324-325 | |
| Bruno Strasser, Jacques Dubochet | Obituary: Eduard Kellenberger (1920-2004) | Nature. 2005 Feb 24;433(7028):817 |
| Marin van Heel | Jean-Pierre Bretaudière (1946-2008) and the early days of multivariate statistics in electron microscopy | In: "An electronic text book: Electron microscopy in Life Science", 3D-EM Network of Excellence, Editors: A. Verkley and E. Orlova (2009) |
| R. Nuzzo | Profile of Chikashi Toyoshima | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 31;103(5):1165-7 |
| Aaron Klug | Aaron Klug - Autobiography | Nobelprize.org. 17 Jul 2011 |
| Don Caspar, David DeRosier | The 1982 Nobel Prize in chemistry | Science. 1982 Nov 12;218(4573):653-5 |
| John Finch | A Nobel Fellow on Every Floor | Book published by MRC/LMB |
| Anthony Crowther | From Envelopes to Atoms: The Remarkable Progress of Biological Electron Microscopy | Adv Protein Chem Struct Biol. 2010;81:1-32. |
| Viruses and the development of quantitative biological electron microscopy | Notes Rec R Soc Lond. 2004 Jan;58(1):65-81. | |
| Nikolai Andreevich Kiselev | Nikolai Andreevich Kiselev (On the Occasion of His 80th Birthday) | Kristallografiya, 2008, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 1149–1150. translated in Crystallography Reports, 2008, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 1091–1092 |
| Wolfgang Baumeister | A voyage to the inner space of cells | Protein Sci. 2005 January; 14(1): 257–269. |
| Arthur L Robinson | Electron Microscopy: Imaging Molecules in Three Dimensions | Science 1976 April; Vol. 192 no. 4237 pp. 360-400 |
| Jacques Dubochet | Cryo-EM—the first thirty years | Journal of Microscopy 2011; Vol. 245 no. 3 pp. 1-4 |
| Joachim Frank | Single-particle Cryo-electron Microscopy: The Path Toward Atomic Resolution/Selected Papers Of Joachim Frank With Commentaries (Series in Structural Biology) | April 6, 2018 |
Original personal narratives
These narratives were specially provided to this 3DEM history website by the authors below. We welcome further contributions.
| Robert Josephs | A profile of a researcher in the field of electron crystallography | October 2015 |
| Michael Rossmann | A short scientific autobiography of Michael G. Rossmann | September 2011 |
| Ondreij Krivanek | Ondrej Krivanek’s contribution to microscopy: Memories of an adventure! | August 2018 |
