The progress of science is in part attributed to the development of new methodologies. The application of mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the study of biological macromolecules is such a representative example, which is the subject of this year’s Nobel prize award in chemistry shared by three scientists. The works include the development of soft desorption ionization methods for mass spectrometric analysis of biological macromolecules and the development of NMR for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution. These developments revolutionized the analytical methods for biomolecules such as proteins and facilitate the study of biological macromolecules so much enough to have deep effects on the whole life sciences.
