Highlights in Structural Biology
![Highlights in Structural Biology: 1986 Highlights in Structural Biology: 1986](/life-at/features/assets/1986.jpg)
1986 UT Southwestern’s structural biology program launched with the recruitment of two faculty members, Dr. Elizabeth Goldsmith, Professor of Biophysics and Biochemistry, and former Professor of Biochemistry Dr. Stephen Sprang.
![Highlights in Structural Biology: 1988 Highlights in Structural Biology: 1988](/life-at/features/assets/1988.jpg)
1988 Dr. Johann Deisenhofer received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 for using X-ray crystallography to describe the 3-D structure of a protein molecule. This structure helped explain the process of photosynthesis. His prize came the same year he joined UT Southwestern and was based on earlier research in Germany.
![Highlights in Structural Biology: 1989 Highlights in Structural Biology: 1989](/life-at/features/assets/1989.jpg)
1989 The first protein structure determined at UT Southwestern was tumor necrosis factor, reported by Dr. Sprang and Dr. Michael Eck, a graduate student at the time.
![Highlights in Structural Biology: 2000 Highlights in Structural Biology: 2000](/life-at/features/assets/2000.jpg)
2000 UT Southwestern launched the Structural Biology Lab to enable the use of macromolecular crystallography for research across campus.
![Highlights in Structural Biology: 2003 Highlights in Structural Biology: 2003](/life-at/features/assets/2003.jpg)
2003 The Department of Cell Biology started using its first cryo-electron microscope. At the time, this model of microscope was so rare that only one other existed in the United States. The complete cryo-EM system was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and took 18 months to build.
![Highlights in Structural Biology: 2016 Highlights in Structural Biology: 2016](/life-at/features/assets/2016.jpg)
2016 UT Southwestern launched a $17 million cryo-electron microscope facility with a three-instrument configuration that is the only one of its kind in the world.